Patterico's Pontifications

11/8/2006

Prediction on Partial-Birth Abortion Argument

Filed under: Abortion,General — Patterico @ 6:33 am



I wasn’t willing to predict the outcome of the election further than observing that I thought Allahpundit had the right idea when he said he’d be drinking to ease the pain. Indeed, the election looks to be shaping up as a disaster, although how big a disaster still remains to be seen.

Since my predictions (such as they are) are doing well, I’ll try another — about this morning’s oral argument in the partial-birth abortion cases. I predict that coverage of the argument will express surprise that the Justices were discussing obscure topics like federalism and deference to Congressional findings. “I thought this was supposed to be about partial-birth abortion!” the stories will say.

Dahlia Lithwick recently bristled at Justice Scalia’s suggestion that legal reporting brushes aside discussion of critical legal issues in favor of reportage on “which side wins.” We’ll see how her lot does with this story.

6 Responses to “Prediction on Partial-Birth Abortion Argument”

  1. “I thought this was supposed to be about partial-birth abortion!” the stories will say.

    As Bill said to Monica’s replacement, close but no cigar. Try this:

    “I thought this was supposed to be about a woman’s right to choose, and the efforts of the far right to whittle that hard-fought right away by zeroing in on a rare, medically important procedure some critics refer to disparagingly as ‘partial birth abortion!'” the stories will say.

    Xrlq (f52b4f)

  2. In law school, I always loved the ruling where the judge would say, “The issue before the court today is whether X blah blah blah” and all the students would be thinking, “I thought this was a case about Y?” I think you’re dead-on about what the justices will focus on and it really is a more important issue than whether this particular ban holds up or not. It should be interesting.

    sharon (dfeb10)

  3. sharon’s comment reminded me of my all-time favorite first sentence of a judicial opinion stating the issue. here’s a link:
    http://www.scu.edu/law/FacWebPage/Neustadter/contractsebook/main/cases/FrigalimentInterp.html

    assistant devil's advocate (3f13fc)

  4. Oh yeah baby you’re so right.
    And I notice John Murtha was returned by a very large majority even after you pointed out how useless he was…America just doesn’t get it, eh?
    We could go on with this light hearted banter all day I suppose, seeing there’s so much space in you comments and all…
    Pontificating just became a very low-return business for quite a few people Patterico and you’re definitely one of them.

    waldo (888901)

  5. The problem with people opposed to partial birth abortion is that they don’t understand that the object in question really does morph from a mere collection of cells to a human being as it passes through the birth canal.

    Terry Gain (ada5c7)

  6. ADA, I have to agree with you. I had forgotten all about that case, but every time I am looking at poultry in the freezer case I think about it. 🙂

    sharon (dfeb10)


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