Legal Commentary

Political Rhetoric: The Right To Privacy And Roe

By Big Tent Democrat

Josh Marshall writes:

Immediately after saying what a terrible decision Roe was, Palin got a follow-up question from Couric about whether she believes there's a constitutional 'right to privacy'. And Palin said, yes. Now, narrowly speaking, you can believe in a constitutional right to privacy and also oppose Roe. But the right to privacy, as Couric says in the interview, is one of the cornerstones of Roe. And in the public debate yes or no on the right to privacy is something pretty close to a proxy for your position on abortion rights.

This is wrong. Republicans and anti-Roe advocates learned from the Robert Bork experience - you acknowledge a right to privacy in the liberty clause of the 14th Amendment without conceding an inch on Roe. Anyone who watched John Roberts and Samuel Alito in their confirmation hearings should know this. Marshall has misread the new political rhetoric from the Right on this. The rise of Dred Scott as the dogwhistle on Roe is a result of the need to replace the attack on the right to privacy and Griswold.

D-Day gets it just as wrong here. I wonder if anyone was paying attention during the Roberts and Alito hearings?

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).