An Opinion Piece - On Lady Justice: Women, The Law, and The Battle to Save America by Dahlia Lithwick - A Must-Read For Women!

Freedom is a dream

Haunting as amber wine

Or worlds remembered out of time.

Not Eden’s gate, but freedom

Lures us down a trail of skulls

Where men forever crush the dreamers—

Never the dream.

—pauli murray, “Dark Testament”

I’m not sure if my involvement in causes, benefits, marches, and demonstrations has made a huge difference, but I know one thing: that involvement has connected me with the good people: people with the live hearts, the live eyes, the live heads.

—pete seeger

I sometimes think of the Supreme Court oral arguments in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt on March 2, 2016, as the last truly great day for women and the legal system in America. There are, to be sure, many such glorious moments to choose from, both before and after Trump, but as a professional court-watcher I had a front-row seat to this story, one that offered a sense that women in the United States had achieved some milestone that would never be reversed. The landmark abortion challenge represented the first time in American history that a historic abortion case was being heard by a Supreme Court with three female justices.

Buried in that story is the truth about how legal decisions involving women, their salaries, their bodies, their educations, custody of their children, and their votes have been framed in American courtrooms until very recently: by husbands and fathers with good intentions and staggeringly low information. We lucked out. We got contraception and access to military schools, the right to our own credit cards, and all sorts of equal rights over the years...

And then it was gone. With the death of Justice Ginsburg in September 2020; the seating of three committed anti-choice justices by Donald Trump in the years since Whole Woman’s Health; and the reversal of Roe in June of 2022, that case will now likely stand as a high-water mark we may not soon see again in the courts, or in women’s constitutional progress. It has become, at least for me, a marker of the end of history, but in completely the wrong direction. In a matter of weeks after Whole Woman’s Health came down, constitutional history began to unravel quickly.

So, what does an opinion piece mean as opposed to just being a review? And I may use a liberal amount of sarcasm, just because... So, I'm talking about the present and future more than the book itself, based upon what is covered in the book... OK? Feel free to make comments, ask questions, or just your thoughts and feedback on this "opinionated post" LOL

Readers, I highly recommend Lady Justice, especially to all women around the world.  Recently in a conversation with my best friend, we mutually came to a conclusion that America should become an Amazonian Country... Why? Because everywhere we were looking, we saw women in government, state and federal, who were "doing their job!" Wow, yes, that's all, they are doing their jobs! As opposed to many men, especially in politics, and especially in Congress, who are, on the norm, slow to act, slow to research and use Truth, and slow to...do...their...jobs! Seriously! So, if this is true, don't we need to reconsider how women are, today, being treated?!

I watched as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg fought her battle to...stay alive... She had every right to expect what would happen if she was no longer on earth to protect the rights of women... And it did! Could she have saved the Supreme Court from overturning Roe. I'll wager that she would have! Instead, what we have now seen over and over and over regarding the highest court in our country, is that it has become seriously flawed... And no longer, a Court that could be Trusted. In fact, Ginsberg is not even mentioned in this book, which is, of course, not a book of historical events... Rather a book to tell us just exactly what has occurred over the last nearly decade! One of the first cases was, I discovered, the prosecution of hundreds of individuals who were participants the Virginia protest case in which a woman was killed by automobile! Few details were provided however.

Basically, this book is just about women doing their jobs... You know, the ones that need to get done routinely and based upon extensive research and documentation! The one, also, that would never get publicized much because they weren't handled by a man... men who, for whatever reason, have continued to assume dictatorial roles in just about anything they do...  A man like the past president of America.

I added a video above just for a little light humor, along with much of my sarcastic comments, LOL, but, as well as an awareness that we women MUST look toward our future in ALL things. In my opinion, the future of America now has little to do with Trump. In fact, he is merely a distraction of what is actually happening across the nation. You feel it, don't you? There is much more violence... There are many more guns in the hands of many who should never be allowed to touch them. And more people are dying in America due to guns than at any other time, and only in America! Children are more aware than many would think they are. It is clear that at a certain age, somewhat between toddler and going to schools, they are hearing what is being said... Many know the name of the former president...

I remember early in his administration, there was a story, perhaps true or not, but seemed to be something that could really happen these days. A young boy was chastized at school and then at home for bullying another student. At home he calmly said, I figure if the president can do it, then it must be the "right" think to do... Indeed, there is much for the average citizen these days who can question, what in the world is happening in America!

Importantly, there has been a major shift of the far right in moving backward. They want to eliminate all the advances that have occurred over the last 2000+ years. They claim they want to make america great again... You know, when white men ran everything, including all families, all businesses, and all potential future advancements. Now, many white men such as the former president, who was quite open in his actions regarding women, including rape, for which he has been convicted, and for defamation, which he has also been convicted, and which is now being considered as part of a criminal trial now underway in New York... Men want the old days--they don't want them because women and blacks in particular in America will be able to take advantage of any new advancement...and maybe learn more, even more than their men who want to savor all that power... their violent toys...

I've learned that it didn't start in 2015, prior to the election. That was just when a former reality star decided to claim power over America... And succeeded, even though he was not chosen by the majority of Americans...

Now, here's the first questionable issue... Election Fraud--manipulation of the voting apparatus, gerrymandering, and any other scheme that can be used to attempt to keep women and blacks from voting... That, by the way, doesn't mean that they also don't want Jews, Immigrants from any place that does not have white citizens, preferably also male, et.al., 

It is just that they learned by 2015 that women and black women in particular have a strong coordinated effort to "bond..." You know what I mean, right? We've all bonded over one thing or another... First women wanted to vote, so everybody bonded together and we got the right to vote... at least to a great extent, but there has always been holdouts who continue to reject advancement... Then the MeToo Movement...

This book spotlights Stacey Abrams! Of course, I've also started reading her books once I knew that she had started under a pseudonym, but it was her presence, her ability to communicate, and our being able to see clearly that she CARED! that brought us to her... But I didn't know what had happened to her after not winning the position of governor... Well, they now call her The Game Changer! 

And, after that election, when she was offered other jobs in the federal government, she chose to stay and continue exactly what she had been doing. Only nation-wide! Everybody knows her name--or at least every woman knows her name... This book talks about a number of women who are taking on the illegal manipulation of things like redistricting, the effect of the census... all those "routine" things that none of us really entirely understood since, perhaps, our state was fairly stable most of the year...or just didn't broadcast what was being done to ensure redistributing was handled to ensure that those people "they" didn't think should be allowed to vote, became of little consequence to the overall state voting activity... that they wanted...

Now think about this. Right Now! If your state is a primary red state, it is my understanding that those who vote red will ensure that if you, who live in that state, but are fed  up with what has happened since, say, for instance, Roe's overturn, then you just might have been redistricted out of your vote not counting much for the state's results... If you are confused, well, just know that I am too. However, what I do know and am quite familiar with is that, Donald Trump did not win the popular vote!!! Hillary Clinton did!!! Yes, in 2016, it was only the Electoral Votes that elected Trump into a presidency like no other in our country's history! And now I know from reading this book, that people in power who want to make sure they win will lie, cheat, maneuver, and downright invent electors, if they can get away with it to make their candidate win! Did you know, for instance, that it was a conservative Supreme Court, who confirmed the second Bush president, who was NOT the popular vote winner... And, I have to ask, do you begin to see a pattern that it is only the Republican Party that does these types of obfuscation? At least during the last decade... I refuse to look further back than that... History is history and cannot be changed. But you can use historical and present events to ensure something doesn't happen again...

Thus, I've turned this book into an opinion piece. If you have not yet read any book oriented toward the Trump Years as President or, very important, what happened on January 6th to attempt to change the results of the 2020 election during which Joe Biden was elected as the new president. Lady Justice gives you a great overview of legal actions taking place during that time... On the other hand, if you have kept yourself fairly up-to-date on current events incited or implemented by the republican party, I want to spotlight those issues that concern me the most...

The governor signed this bill! I've just finished reading a novel about this issue... Watch for it soon!

This is the latest effort by republicans to maneuver events related to the election...This is not lying, this is real, this is the truth--part of the conspiracy by MAGA to ensure that Donald Trump would win the election in 2020! (Concurrent planning with the January 6th insurrection planning!) Also now moving toward beginning the trial. Other states have also filed suits against fake electors activity as part of the 2020 election overthrow... Please be sure you are on alert for the 2024 election, no matter how you vote... Make sure your vote counts! Frankly, I believe that most of America knows what is going on to vote...but when we know the type of shenanigans' done by the republican party, by white christian nationalists, by Putin to again provide disinformation and be involved in the next election as Russian was indicted for in the 2016 election.

Let's look at another state--Wisconsin as well as other states, including Georgia which are also moving toward heading to trial.

Lithwick points out that one of the the first thing done was the banning at the border potential immigrants from certain countries... But, sometimes, Trump was stopped by law... He then began to appeal--more appeals for two reasons. First to possibly delay action Trump didn't want to happen. Or, to disagree with the law and begin to figure out how to get around Laws!

Also, you need to be watching as to what the Supreme Court announced related to Trump's case about he should be immune for...anything..."

Readers, please be alert and do your research... If this case is that Trump is determined to be immune of all issues during his administration, then we will KNOW THAT THE SUPREME COURT HAS BEEN COMPROMISED! No man is above the Law... Don't let the republicans give you the slighted idea that this could be different for the past president! To me, this has NO basis for even being considered...if you follow the law!

I know, I know, you are all concerned about being able to buy your groceries, for paying for bills! At the same time, however, if we are all now cognizant--mindful--of the facts that are being performed illegally across the nation, you will undoubtedly also realize that without our freedoms, without our ability to vote and act freely and honestly with no fear of corruption, especially as women, non-whites or non white nationalist christians, the entire core of America's democracy will be criminally taken over as the new Supreme Courts Justice opined, then we are leading to the Oval Office being nothing about a location for a criminal enterprise, headed by the 2024 republican candidate (the latter part of this sentence is my clarifying opinion of her judgment)...

GABixlerReviews

 

Now Reading Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America by Dahlia Lithwick - Spotlights Women Involved in Major Legal Cases!

Note this is a sample of the audio book which you can read...

Freedom is a dream

 Haunting as amber wine

 Or worlds remembered out of time.

 Not Eden’s gate, but freedom

 Lures us down a trail of skulls

 Where men forever crush the dreamers—

 Never the dream.

 —pauli murray, “Dark Testament” 

 

While I was working on my post related to The Handmaid's Tale, I was led to another book. This is another book that I had earlier purchased when I saw it publicized.. How? well, when I start reading, my Kindle automatically records that I am now reading on GoodReads. But, for the first time, I had received two "like" comments, one of which was by a leading woman who works in the publishing field... My earlier plan had been to skim this book for a future time once I knew what it was about... Was this another nudge to read now? Here is what I found:

I had reached chapter 6 - The Case: Abortion at the Border... You see, this book is an all-female spotlight of women who needed, sought for, or participated in getting justice through America's courts... Kindle also brings readers directly to the first pages, so that I had not read the Table of Contents in advance... In the Border Case, Brigitte Amiri was the Litigator spotlighted... Amiri had a sign on the wall behind her desk... A quote from The Handmaid's Tale!

In the fall of 2017, a fight over abortion, religious conscience, and the actions of government officials became the next marquee controversy over the Trump administration’s new worldview, in which religion and law became frequently interchangeable. It was a story told most commonly through the aperture of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. And the comparison was not inapt. Brigitte Amiri knows all about this strange dystopian meta-story, because, well, she litigated it. In fact, the Trump Justice Department tried (unsuccessfully, as it turned out) to ruin her professional career for prevailing in a constitutional challenge to it.

Yes, you read that right. The Litigator, the author of this book, all publishing participants, and more, saw a direct parallel of a court case held under the past president's administration to be comparative to The Handmaid's Tale! Let's get specific about that meaning. In this case, we find a 17-year-old who has been raped, seeking an abortion. She had undergone counseling and remained firm that she could not deal with being forced to carry her rapist's child, even to term... The court named her Jane Doe, she had been unaccompanied at the border. In fact, she had left her parents home where she was being abused.

At the Border she was immediately placed in a care facility and while she was waiting for asylum support, she discovered she was pregnant. She asked for an abortion. Because she could not get parental approval, she would have to seek approval of a judge.

Jane went to state court with Marie Christine Cortez, an attorney from Jane’s Due Process, a nonprofit organization that offers assistance to pregnant minors in Texas. (A state which was just beginning to flex their political power regarding women's health care.) She was appointed a guardian, and a state judge granted her request on September 25, 2017. The procedure was scheduled for the 28, toward the end of her first trimester. 

All that would have been needed was for Jane to leave the care facility and then return to await action on her request for asylum. The head of that facility would not allow her to go! Scott Lloyd? In 2017, Donald Trump placed him in charge of ORR, which had custody over all immigrants. You may have heard about him via the news. It had been reported that he was tracking the menstrual cycles of all females under 18 in that facility! Yeah, you sure can tell what a man's like when they start keeping track of women's menstrual cycles! No wonder these young women did not trust him or others involved... But that was just the beginning as the court case began to allow her an abortion... With the new president's election, all things women's health would get harder, but Amiri knew she had no choice...

The panel Amiri drew for oral argument in Garza v. Hargan consisted of three appellate judges: Karen LeCraft Henderson, Patricia Millett, and Brett Kavanaugh. Attorney Catherine Dorsey, representing the Justice Department, opened by telling the court that the government was “not preventing, blocking, or imposing any obstacle on Ms. Doe pursuant of an abortion here, such that it could constitute an undue burden within the meaning of Casey. The Government has not put any obstacle in her path; rather the Government is refusing to facilitate an abortion, which it is permitted to do in furtherance of its legitimate interest in promoting childbirth.” The government wasn’t impeding her, it said; it just wouldn’t help her. Judge Kavanaugh pressed Dorsey on how it could be true that if Jane were an adult in a federal prison, she would have a constitutional right to abortion under Roe v. Wade, but not as an immigrant minor. Dorsey replied that “Ms. Doe has the option of voluntary departure” to her home country. Later in the argument Dorsey would be asked whether Jane’s home country allowed abortion. She conceded that it did not. Dorsey explained to the court that adult migrants in ICE detention can obtain an abortion but minors cannot because HHS has an interest in promoting “the best interests of the child,” which is, presumably, to give birth in every single case. Judge Kavanaugh asked how many pregnant minors were currently in ORR custody. Dorsey did not know. Judge Millett asked how it was possible that ORR would be “facilitating” an abortion given that Jane is “in the custody of a grantee who has no opposition to letting her go, other than . . . the Government’s threat to take away funding if they let her go have the abortion.” Dorsey acknowledged that the shelter needed only to do the paperwork to transfer her and provide care for her post-procedure. Millett was confused: “So the one health care they’re not willing to do is for abortion. They’d be willing to do anything if she were to continue the pregnancy and do all this facilitation if she were to continue the pregnancy?” Dorsey repeated that the government had an interest in promoting childbirth. Millett: “You’ve already had a judicial bypass that says she can make this decision herself, not her custodian. She’s got a guardian ad litem that agrees. And your position is that the facilitating would be ORR saying okay we’re going to let you exercise your choice.” Then it was Brigitte Amiri’s turn at the lectern. “May it please the court. Good morning,” she opened. “Since 1973 the Supreme Court has held that the Government may not ban abortion. By refusing to transport J.D. for an abortion, or refusing to allow anyone to transport J.D., including the shelter or her guardian ad litem, the Government is violating well established Supreme Court Precedent.” Judge Kavanaugh pressed her on why a sponsor couldn’t be found for Jane. Giving custody of Doe from the government to a sponsor would prevent the shelter from facilitating an abortion and thus allow the court to avoid making a ruling on an undocumented minor’s right to an abortion in federal custody. Amiri replied that the government had been unsuccessfully seeking a sponsor for six weeks already, that one attempt to locate a sponsor had already fallen through, and that finding a sponsor could take months. Judge Millett asked why the federal government didn’t have an interest in helping unaccompanied minors make decisions that are safe and appropriate for them. Amiri replied, “Your Honor, they do have the requirement to act in the best interest of minors. And I will say that they are not doing that with respect to J.D., when she has made a decision to have an abortion. She has a judicial bypass from a state court judge. What they are actually doing is supplanting their decision about what J.D. should do with her pregnancy and that is not acting in her best interest and that is actually veto power over J.D.’s abortion decision.” Judge Kavanaugh* pressed her on why having a sponsor, another adult to talk to, wouldn’t help Jane make a better, more informed decision. Amiri reiterated that Jane already had a judicial bypass, plus a guardian ad litem, plus an attorney ad litem for emotional support. She added that Scott Lloyd had gone to another minor in a shelter, personally “to talk to her about her pregnancy and, I believe, unfairly pressure her to carry her pregnancy to term.”

*Judge Kavanaugh was one of the three Trump appointments who overthrew Roe even though during his appointment interviews, he indicated that he considered it a precedent and told the women who asked that he would not vote to change...Barrett also said this during her interviews! Yet both voted for the overthrow on the first chance they got!

Now we all know what happened under the past president, don't we? First his Attorney General made it a law to separate children from the parents, as they allowed immigrants through the border! With a deal made with evangelical christians, Trump placed judges who were from a pre-selected list for appointment. It was rigged of course... And then they proceeded with actions like just this one case times so many we can't count... And she also knew that they lost count and location of where those children were taken when they stole them from the parent(s)!

And it gets worse daily. Roe was overturned and the whole nation is in uproar... I've shared about a number that were extremely upsetting to the individual making the news who needed to have a medical procedure... But this week it has gotten even worse, thanks to Clarence Thomas (yeah, him who gets big sums of financial support from a millionaire, and whose wife assisted in the January 6th insurrection planning...)who in his concurrent statement on abortion suggested states go back into the historical records to see if there was already a law for abortion in place... Suddenly Arizona's state supreme court pulled a law that was written by one man, before even the state was authorized...in 1846...and made it the law of the state!!! This week!

You can't write fiction that is this extreme!

Most of you may remember that, in my opinion, IF there must be a law, it should be Pro-Choice. But, women's health care is a personal issue that should not be controlled in any way by the government! Can you imagine a woman who has had a problem with pregnancy for whatever reason, that the doctor and all who are involved would be jailed!!!

As the Attorney General clearly stated yesterday, this cannot be allowed to continue! Women are being used for political power on all levels... Men are the primary architects creating such laws! And no, they are doctors, they are politicians!!! Stop this Madness!

I found it ironic that this book included reference to my last read book... I am continuing to read this book. Included, for example, is what happened in Virginia where a young woman was killed by car during demonstrations...  I have found it of benefit to see WHAT happened legally after those events took place in front of us!  I'll be fitting in this type of post among reviews of other books I've already read... I've even thought about making it into a book club discussion here on BRH... What do you think? Comment if interested!

God Bless

Gabby