Scalia Suggests Women Have No Right to Contraception

[Igel]

106. That's his point.

The right to privacy is inferred. And the inferencing was done by a very small number of people.

In a democracy of 200 million, 5 people and a handful of lawyers decided that there was a new right and that the two houses of Congress and 50 state legislatures, with all their executive apparatus, had to comply. It's not democratic. It's not even old-school liberal.

It's not the same as striking down a law because it conflicts with fairly obvious Constitutional language. It's not the same as striking down a law because it's inconsistent. It's striking down a law because 5 judges had "aha moments" and changed the basis on which laws for 180 years had been written, and did so in a rather serious way.

It also struck down the need for a debate, for convincing others, for validating concerns. In terms of democratic process, it was a disaster and divided "we the people" into "us the winners" and "us the losers". It froze the issue in early 1970s thinking. Those against it are powerless and powerless advocates can say and think anything they want with little consequence. It's when you make decisions that suddenly you have to take things seriously. Even supporters of abortion rights are often infantilized advocates. Little's going to change.

It was one of the larger pieces of the context that produced a reaction that most really despised in the late '70s (and the level of despising hasn't exactly abated with time).