Kansas adopted its constitution in 1859. Abortion was largely illegal then, as it was in most of the country. Who counted as a person mattered then. The state was born in violence, as pro-slavery forces unsuccessfully attempted to impose their constitution on the territory’s free settler majority. This blatant disregard for democratic consent, opposed by Illinois Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, effectively sundered the Democratic Party, guaranteeing Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the 1860 presidential election. Kansas became a battleground: in August 1863, William Quantrill led mix of guerrillas and ruffians to the town of Lawrence, where they committed one of the Civil War’s worst atrocities. Those opposed to democracy, law, and life have reappeared in Kansas. But they are not insurgents. Instead, they are serving on the state supreme court. Last week in Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt, six members of the Kansas Supreme Court discovered what had been missed for 160 years: the good citizens approved a constitution which legalized a practice that they simultaneously banned. Such is the amazing versatility of liberal jurisprudence, freeing citizens from the straightjacket of a constitution interpreted to actually mean something, something that reflects the will of those who drafted and approved it and does not change to match the latest legal fashions current in the halls of academia. Of course, Roe v. Wade had already done this to the federal Constitution, conjuring out of permutations and emanations a “right” unknown when the document was promulgated and amended, most importantly, with the 14th Amendment. However, as two Trump nominees have joined the high court panic has set in in some progressive precincts. The widely shared nightmare is that a Supreme Court majority might rediscover serious jurisprudence and overturn Roe. In fact, a Roberts-led majority seems more likely to further erode than completely eliminate the landmark ruling. In any case, not a lot would change in p...
No hoodwinking or hornswoggling here.
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