SUPREME INJUSTICE

LegalDispatch 0.25

As I’m wont to, I held this edition of LegalDispatch over the holiday weekend. Apologies if it sounds slightly out of date…

SUPREME INJUSTICE

I know most people don’t subscribe to this newsletter for politics, but I don’t consider the Supreme Court to be a political body.

At least, I didn’t until recently.

Yes, I’m talking (again) about SCOTUS’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. And, yes, I know that (almost) everyone views this through a political lens.

I don’t.

I view this through a judicial lens. (Dobbs is a judicial decision, so call me crazy.) Let’s do the first year of law school in ten seconds: The most important principle in jurisprudence in the concept of stare decisis or respect for precedent. Short version: If a court wants to overturn, ignore, or change established precedent, it better have a damn good reason.

(TLDR: Stacking the Supreme Court with conservative justices through political and extra-judicial means does not constitute a “damn good reason.”)

Now, has the Court changed precedent before? Of course. Brown v. Board of Education which ended segregation in school is a classic example. But Brown is also an example of the Court overturning precedent to bestow rights on citizens.

Dobbs is the exact opposite. In Dobbs, the court ignored precedent to strip away a right millions of Americans have had for half a century.

And as Justice Thomas wrote in his concurrence, the Dobbs decision lays the foundation for the similar overturning of cases about contraception and gay marriage.

Bottom line, Dobbs is a ticking time bomb in the heart of our democracy. The worst is truly yet to come.

And for those conservatives who aren’t worried — or, indeed, favor — the elimination of abortion, legal contraception, gay marriage and the like, consider this poem as a warning:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

— Martin Niemöller

HAN & CHEWIE

This has been the kind of week where to find cheery news, one must turn to a galaxy far, far away.

Fortunately, Issue 3 of Han Solo & Chewbacca hit the stands (admittedly after some delay) this past Wednesday.

WORK UPDATES

This week, I was mainly focused on breaking story for PROJECT MARBLE and writing my half of the season finale for Green Lantern.

With respect to GL, I know a lot of people are eager for updates. However, as I’m not running GL (I just serve as co-creator and an exec producer), I don’t feel that such news is mine to dole out. Hopefully, an update will come through official channels soon.

GAME CHANGER

I subscribe to a lot of Substack newsletters but don’t have near enough time to read all of them. Back in the day, I would use an app called Elo (or Elocance, it changed names) that would read aloud any email I sent to it. It was a great little app which, sadly, shut down a few weeks ago.

As though sensing this turn of events, the folks at Substack have added a new bit of functionality to their reader app: A feature that will — you guessed it — read the newsletter you select to you. All you have to do is tap the little earphones icon at the top of the newsletter. Really great.

That’s it for this week.

Be good to each other.

Best,

Marc

Encino, California

7.5.22