1. A Time for Courage on the Supreme Court, By O. Carter Snead, Newsweek, May 20, 2021, 6:30 AM, Opinion
On May 17, the United States Supreme Court reconsidered a prior precedent that for nearly six decades shamefully denied the equal protection of the law to an entire segment of the human family. The year was 1954, the case was Brown v. Board of Education and the precedent overruled was Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which for 58 years had allowed states to engage in “separate but equal” discrimination on the basis of race.
On May 17, 2021, the Court agreed to hear a dispute regarding a younger line of precedents—namely, Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)—that has for many decades forbidden states from extending the basic, fair and equal protection of the law to every member of the human family, born and unborn. By granting certiorari in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and agreeing to answer directly “whether all pre-viability restrictions on abortion are unconstitutional,” the Court has the opportunity to finally end its failed and constitutionally unjustified experiment as the nation’s de facto abortion regulatory agency of last resort. The justices should emulate the courage of their predecessors in Brown, restore the Court to its proper role as faithful interpreter of the Constitution and begin to repair the vast damage caused by Roe and Casey.
O. Carter Snead, professor of law and director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, is author of What It Means to be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics (Harvard U. Press 2020), chosen by The Wall Street Journal as one of the “Ten Best Books of 2020.”
https://www.newsweek.com/time-courage-supreme-court-opinion-1592691
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2. Catholic Schools Are No Place for Critical Race Theory, By Grazie Pozo Christie, National Review, May 20, 2021, 6:30 AM, Opinion
Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other “woke” ideologies, having swept higher education out to sea, now seem to be flooding our elementary and secondary schools. There are daily reports of parents and teachers complaining bitterly about the rising tide, pushing back against the entrenchment of hyper-politicized school boards, and suing school systems for violating students’ civil rights. Sad to say, not even Catholic schools are immune to the latest schoolhouse fad.
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Miami’s Carrollton School is a case in point. An architectural gem on Biscayne Bay, the all-girl school is independent of the Miami Archdiocese and boasts tiny class sizes and the highest academic standards. But a growing number of parents recently started noticing an insidious narrowing of views considered acceptable at school. Their daughters complained that expressing opinions contrary to “woke” orthodoxy, especially on racial and sexual issues, was becoming impossible — even when these opinions aligned with Catholic teaching.
In a recent letter to the school’s board (later leaked to the press), almost 200 parents of current students and many graduates pointed out that girls were being “targeted and ostracized by the very teachers who should be defending the students’ rights to express” traditional Christian views. The signatories were promptly smeared as racists and homophobes and (gasp!) Cuban Republicans, all for daring to expect that at a Catholic school, their children would receive an education centered not on politics but on Catholic social teaching.
The central tenet of that teaching is, of course, the inherent and equal dignity of all people, regardless of race, condition, or developmental stage.
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The letter’s signatories, and the many parents who share their concerns, asked that racism be rejected on these noble grounds, not on the grounds of a political ideology (CRT) that is deeply problematic. CRT teaches children to divide the world into oppressors and oppressed, based on racial and ethnic categories. It seeks to address historic, present, and future injustices through a kind of reverse discrimination as well as through the dismantling of the market economy and institutions of democracy. It also sees traditional morality as simply another tool with which oppressors can control their victims. And its champions enforce this “wokeism” by aggressively tarring dissenters as bigots and demanding their “cancelation” from polite society.
Grazie Pozo Christie is a policy adviser for The Catholic Association.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/catholic-schools-are-no-place-for-critical-race-theory/
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3. Democracy Is the Issue in the Mississippi Abortion Case, The high court could put questions about gestational limits back into voters’ hands—where they belong., By Clarke D. Forsythe, The Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2021, Pg. A7, Opinion
The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will hear Mississippi’s defense of its limit on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. However the high court rules, it’s unlikely to satisfy activists on either side. But a large majority of Americans would likely support a decision upholding the law.
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The state’s limit has broad support nationally. As one researcher found, “Polls stretching back for decades show that two-thirds or more of the public believe abortion should generally be illegal in the second trimester.” The most recent Gallup poll on the matter in 2018 found that 65% thought abortion should be illegal in the second trimester (after 12 weeks). A January 2020 Marist Poll found 7 in 10 Americans support limiting abortion after the first trimester.
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If the court loosens its grip on abortion politics, the states have shown that they are ready and able to address the issue in ways that reflect Americans’ varying viewpoints, grounded in the science of fetal development and maternal health.
Mr. Forsythe is senior counsel at Americans United for Life and author of “Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/democracy-is-the-issue-in-the-mississippi-abortion-case-11621442926?
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4. Texas governor signs ‘heartbeat’ bill into law, By Catholic News Agency, May 19, 2021, 11:27 AM
The governor of Texas on Wednesday signed a ban on most abortions conducted after the detection of a fetal heartbeat.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed SB 8, a bill prohibiting doctors from performing abortions unless they first search for a fetal heartbeat, which can be detected as early as six weeks into pregnancy. If doctors were to detect a heartbeat, under the legislation they could not perform an abortion except in a medical emergency.
The law is enforced exclusively through private civil action, not by the government.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247712/texas-governor-signs-heartbeat-bill-into-law
___________________________________________________________TCA Media Monitoring provides a snapshot from national newspapers and major Catholic press outlets of coverage regarding significant Catholic Church news and current issues with which the Catholic Church is traditionally or prominently engaged. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Association. |
