Justice once removed

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has every right to publicly speak out about the current court’s decisions. And she is.

In an interview with Fox News, the ex-justice offered a hidden rebuke to the Supreme Court members for their recent decision upholding the federal partial-birth abortion ban.

I happened upon this interview, conducted by Chris Wallace. Her rebuke wasn’t all that hidden. Her personal investment in the earlier ruling was evident. 

The high court’s decision overturned her opinion in a similar 2000 case regarding a Nebraska partial-birth abortion ban.

In the 2000 case, O’Connor wrote for the 5-4 majority saying the state’s ban on the three-day-long abortion procedure was unconstitutional because it lacked a health exception — even though medical groups confirm there is no reason to have the abortion to protect the mother’s life or health.

O’Connor was replaced last year by Justice Samuel Alito, who voted with the majority in deciding that the “health exception” was not necessary or even justifiable in this barbaric procedure.

But O’Connor argues that the high court’s ruling on the issue “shouldn’t change just because the faces on the court have changed.”

What? “Just because…”?

With all due respect to Justice O’Connor, that sounds like a rattled statement beneath the dignity of the Court. I wonder if she has had the…opportunity…to get through Justice Kennedy’s opinion that explained why the reasoned minds behind the faces of those five justices upheld the partial-birth abortion ban.