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#AbortionRightsAreHumanRights - Too Much Church in the State

By Maureen Dowd During her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Amy Coney Barrett tried to reassure Democrats who were leery of her role as a “handmaid” in a Christian group called “People of Praise.”

The group has a male-dominated hierarchy and a rigid view of sexuality reflecting conservative gender norms and rejecting openly gay men and women. Men, the group’s decision makers, “headed” their wives.Justice Barrett said then that she would not impose her personal beliefs on the country. “Judges can’t just wake up one day and say ‘I have an agenda — I like guns, I hate guns, I like abortion, I hate abortion’ — and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world,” she said amicably. “It’s not the law of Amy. It’s the law of the American people.”

Yet that’s what seems to be coming. Like a royal queen, she will impose her will on the world. It will be the law of Amy. And Sam. And Clarence. And Neil. And Brett.

It’s outrageous that five or six people in lifelong unaccountable jobs are about to impose their personal views on the rest of the country. While they will certainly provide the legal casuistry for their opinion, let’s not be played for fools: The Supreme Court’s impending repeal of Roe will be owed to more than judicial argumentation. There are prior worldviews at work in this upheaval. As a Catholic whose father lived through the Irish Catholics “need not apply” era, I’m happy to see Catholics do well in the world. There is an astonishing preponderance of Catholics on the Supreme Court — six out of the nine justices, and a seventh, Neil Gorsuch, was raised as a Catholic and went to the same Jesuit boys’ high school in a Maryland suburb that Brett Kavanaugh and my nephews did, Georgetown Prep. My father was furious that Catholic presidential candidates Al Smith and J.F.K. had to defend themselves against scurrilous charges that, if they got to the White House, they would take their orders from the pope.

One must tread carefully here. A Catholic signed on to the Roe v. Wade decision and another was in the court majority that upheld it in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Catholic, has expressed support for Roe, and Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative Catholic, may be working for a compromise decision that can uphold Roe.

Still, this Catholic feels an intense disquiet that Catholic doctrine may be shaping (or misshaping) the freedom and the future of millions of women, and men. There is a corona of religious fervor around the court, a churchly ethos that threatens to turn our whole country upside down. I come from a family that hews to the Catholic dictates on abortion, and I respect the views of my relatives. But it’s hard for me to watch the church trying to control women’s sexuality after a shocking number of its own priests sexually assaulted children and teenagers for decades, and got recycled into other parishes, as the church covered up the whole scandal. It is also hard to see the church couch its anti-abortion position in the context of caring for women when it continues to keep women in subservient roles in the church.

Religiosity is a subject some Catholics on the court have been more open about in recent years.

Last year, at Thomas Aquinas College in California, Justice Samuel Alito fretted that there was growing cultural hostility toward Christianity and Catholicism. “There is a real movement to suppress the expression of anything that opposes the secular orthodoxy,” he said. Precisely which belief or practice of his religion does he feel he has been denied? President Biden is a Catholic who is uncomfortable with the issue of abortion despite his support for Roe. Still, when Barrett was a law professor at Notre Dame, a group she belonged to unanimously denounced the university’s decision to honor Biden even though he didn’t support the church’s position on abortion. We have no one in the public arena like Mario Cuomo, who respected the multiplicity of values in an open society and had the guts to wade into the lion’s den at Notre Dame in 1984.

“The Catholic who holds political office in a pluralistic democracy — who is elected to serve Jews and Muslims, atheists and Protestants, as well as Catholics — bears special responsibility,” Cuomo said. “He or she undertakes to help create conditions under which all can live with a maximum of dignity and with a reasonable degree of freedom; where everyone who chooses may hold beliefs different from specifically Catholic ones — sometimes contradictory to them; where the laws protect people’s right to divorce, to use birth control and even to choose abortion.”

The explosive nature of Alito’s draft opinion on Roe has brought to the fore how radical the majority on the court is, willing to make women fit with their zealous worldview — a view most Americans reject. It has also shown how radical Republicans are; although after pushing for this result for decades, because it made a good political weapon, they are now pretending it’s no big deal. We will all have to live with the catastrophic results of their zealotry.

OPINION BY JESSE WEGMAN: Justice Thomas Should Take a Long Look in the Mirror

Thanks to the unparalleled position of power he has held for three decades, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — perhaps the most distinctive voice in an institution that has the final say over many of the nation’s most fraught debates — has long enjoyed the luxury of knowing that 330 million Americans are bound to listen to him. The question is, does he ever listen to himself?

To go by his recent and repeated warnings about the dangers of a politicized court, it sure seems as if he doesn’t.

In a talk at Notre Dame last fall, Justice Thomas complained about what he considered unfair press coverage of the court’s decisions. “I think the media makes it sounds as though you are just always going right to your personal preference,” he said. That was before the nation learned that his wife, Virginia Thomas, a high-profile right-wing activist, had traded dozens of text messages with the White House chief of staff as part of a frantic effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and keep Donald Trump in power. When the Supreme Court later rejected Mr. Trump’s request to block the release to Congress of White House records that may well include some of Ms. Thomas’s communications, Justice Thomas was the sole dissenter.

This month, at a judicial conference in Atlanta, he expressed concern that declining respect for our institutions “bodes ill for a free society” and that young people today don’t have the same respect for the law as older generations. Those remarks came shortly after a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press — a shocking breach of Supreme Court protocol but, if the draft’s conclusion holds, only the most recent in a growing string of rulings that align suspiciously well with Republican political priorities.

Amid the ongoing outcry over the draft opinion, Justice Thomas took another opportunity to lament the fragile status of the court during an event on Friday night sponsored by conservative and libertarian groups. “What happened at the court is tremendously bad,” he said of the leak, comparing it to an “infidelity.” After the leak, he said, trust among the justices “is gone forever.” He added, “I wonder how long we’re going to have these institutions at the rate we’re undermining them.”

Great question. Not much longer, I would say, especially when the people who run them engage in openly partisan attacks, as Justice Thomas did on Friday, accusing liberals of tactics, such as protesting peacefully outside the justices’ homes, that conservatives supposedly never use.

“You would never visit Supreme Court justices’ houses when things didn’t go our way,” he said. “We didn’t throw temper tantrums. It is incumbent on us to always act appropriately and not to repay tit for tat.”

First, and please forgive the presumption, but perhaps His Honor has forgotten the reaction to certain cases that reached the Supreme Court — for example, Brown v. Board of Education? After that landmark 1954 ruling, which struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine and barred the racial segregation of schools, white conservatives across the South were so angry that they refused to obey it. State officials physically blocked Black children from entering schools, standing down only at gunpoint. Justice Thomas also seems to have drawn a blank on the presidential election of 2000, in which a protracted recount in the pivotal state of Florida was interrupted by a posse of Republican operatives, campaign staffers and lawyers in suits, chanting loudly and angrily outside a Miami election office — an incident that became known as the Brooks Brothers Riot. A few weeks later, the Supreme Court shut down the recount for good, handing Florida’s electoral votes, and thus the White House, to the Republican candidate, George W. Bush. The vote was 5 to 4, with all Republican-nominated justices, including Justice Thomas, in the majority.

There is no question that the court has become politicized, to its and the nation’s great detriment. But to be subjected to a lecture on that fact by Clarence Thomas, of all people, is like listening to a plutocrat lounging by his infinity pool in a bathrobe, eating a gold-plated steak while bemoaning the horrors of extreme income inequality.

Has it really not occurred to the justice that by giving partisan political speeches in partisan political environments, he is precisely what is damaging the integrity of the Supreme Court? Perhaps being cosseted in prestige and power for so long makes it easy to ignore the consequences of your words and actions. Justice Thomas isn’t alone on that count, of course. In 2004, Justice Antonin Scalia went duck hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney and accepted free air travel from him, even as Mr. Cheney had a case pending before the court. In 2016, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called Mr. Trump “a faker” in a CNN interview. “I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” she told the Times in a previous interview. The Times editorial board criticized the justices’ behavior in both cases, arguing that, as we said at the time, they should watch what they say and do “in the interest of justice, and of the court’s reputation.”

These days, Justice Thomas and his fellow right-wingers are barely pretending to care about the court’s reputation; they’re just whining about public outrage at their rulings even as they flaunt the most politicized majority in memory. There are now two members of the court, Justice Thomas and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who have attacked Democrats and liberals, as a group, in public settings. (Small World Dept.: Justice Kavanaugh — who accused Democrats at his 2018 confirmation hearing of an “orchestrated political hit” against him and warned that they had “sowed the wind” — was a member of the legal team that helped Mr. Bush prevail in the 2000 election fight.) Even Senate Republicans’ outrageous engineering of the court’s current right-wing supermajority seems to have escaped Justice Thomas’s concern. At the Friday event — again, remember, sponsored by conservative groups — he claimed that Republicans had “never trashed a Supreme Court nominee.” Yet doesn’t history record that they openly stole a vacancy from President Barack Obama in 2016 by refusing even to give a hearing to his third nominee, Merrick Garland? Au contraire, according to Justice Thomas: Mr. Garland “did not get a hearing, but he was not trashed.” As Tom Cruise’s hit man in “Collateral” said when asked if he’d killed a man he had just shot who then fell out of a tall building, “No, I shot him. The bullets and the fall killed him.”

The Supreme Court has always operated within and not outside politics; like the rest of our government, it consists of human beings. Still, the justices have generally striven to stay above the fray. In the interest of protecting and promoting their institutional legitimacy, they have come together to decide some of the most contentious cases; the vote in Brown was 9 to 0, in Roe 7 to 2. Today’s right-wing justices appear to have no qualms about narrow victories, even though five of them were appointed by presidents who first won the presidency after losing the popular vote. Perhaps their brazenness is not in spite of this fact but because of it. They ascended to their high position in a manner that disregarded a majority of the American people, so why not rule that way, too?

The Supreme Court is not there to vindicate the demands of the majority, but neither is it there to thumb its nose at that majority again and again, in a nakedly partisan way. If Justice Thomas is genuinely concerned about the eroding faith in his own institution, the first thing he can do is look in the mirror. The next thing he can do — I’ll say it again — is step aside and give the job to someone who will actually work to protect the integrity of the court.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/opinion/clarence-thomas-supreme-court.html

Video - Foreign Minister & Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari addressing party workers at Khi Airport

#Pakistan - Protection of minorities demand

All the members of civil society and minority communities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa here Sunday grieved and sorrow over the brutal killing of two Sikh men in Batatal Bazar and expressed annoyance over the act.

The Sikhs of Peshawar alongwith residents of the city have blocked the G.T.Road road near Balahisar Fort demanding protection of minority’s communities. The participants chanted slogans for early arrest of the killers and said that government should take steps for eradication of frustration and fear that was being felt in the community.
Chairman National Minority Commission Pakistan, Chela Ram Kewalani expressed heartfelt condolence over the killing of two Sikh brothers in Peshawar and said that the killing was tantamount to killing humanity. He asked for detailed report from the administration concerned and said that killers should be caught as soon as possible.
Meanwhile in a statement issued by President Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC), Ameer Singh Pardhan said that all Sikh community residing in Pakistan strongly condemn the brutal assassination of our two brothers in Peshawar. They also demanded government for early arrest of the killers.
Similarly, Chairman Pakistan Council for World Religion (PCWR)-Faith Friends, Qari Roohullah Madani and other members expressed condolence over the killing of two Sikh members and marked the incident as a inhumane act to sabotage peace in the society. He said all the residents in the province were interrelated with interfaith harmony while this barbaric act could only be committed by the enemies of motherlands.
He also demanded provincial government for taking coherent steps for the safety of lives and properties of the people.

https://thefrontierpost.com/protection-of-minorities-demand/

#Pakistan - Imran Khan was trying to turn every institution into his tiger force, alleges Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari

 Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari alleged on Sunday that former prime minister Imran Khan wanted to turn "every institution" into his "tiger force”.

Addressing a crowd upon his arrival in Karachi for the first time since joining Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet, the PPP chairman congratulated his supporters — referred to as jiyalas — for their victory in removing the PTI government from power.

“Democracy has won, all four provinces have won. We have sent the selected, puppet and incompetent prime minister home,” said Bilawal.

The PPP chairman, who is the foreign minister in Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet, said that his jiyalas are “always successful” when they come out for the protection of the Constitution and take on the dictator of the time. He added that his supporters started their movement when Imran Khan came to power.

“We were standing against this undemocratic person since day one. We looked into his eyes and said you were not elected but selected. We faced injustice but did not sell our principles,” said Bilawal.

The PPP chairman went on to say that when he began his long march, he asked Khan to dissolve the assembly but he was under the influence of power and did not listen to the then Opposition.

Bilawal said that the then Opposition submitted the no-confidence motion against Khan when his caravan reached Islamabad.

“We used democratic means to send an undemocratic person home,” said Bilawal and added that the PTI chairman’s government was removed as part of the democratic process compared to what he claimed was a foreign conspiracy.

The foreign minister said that Khan's removal from power was not a foreign conspiracy but a win for political workers, adding that Khan’s ouster was a victory of the Parliament, the Constitution, and democracy.

“White House did not conspire against you but the Bilawal House did,” said the PPP chairman while referring to his residence.

Bilawal said that members of the current government “forgot” their “political differences and formed” the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). He said that the PPP convinced the allied parties not to leave the Parliament and send Khan home via the no-confidence motion.

Continuing his tirade against Khan, Bilawal said that the former government stole people’s jobs and instead of ending corruption, it broke all records of corruption.

“Imran wanted every institution to turn into his tiger force. Imran wanted the establishment to turn into a tiger force and support him,” claimed Bilawal, adding that the PTI chairman caused harm to the country as he was leaving.

“The coward would not even come and stand in the Parliament. Khan attacked the Constitution while running away from the no-confidence motion,” said Bilawal, adding that the PTI chairman is running a

"why was I not saved movement".

“What kind of a prime minister was he as he ruined the economy during his tenure. He emptied the treasury and left an economic crisis to torture people,” said Bilawal.

The foreign minister also said that the former premier “isolated the country for the sake of his ego” and harmed Pakistan’s foreign policy. 

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/958025-imran-khan-was-trying-to-turn-every-institution-into-his-tiger-force-alleges-bilawal-bhutto-zardari

#Pakistan - Foreign Minister Bilawal’s New York visit ‘a balancing act’

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is expected in New York this week to attend a two-day Global Food Security conference at the UN headquarters, and possibly a one-on-one meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.Mr Blinken will chair the May 18-19 conference to review the food security challenges triggered by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Ukraine was the main source of food supplies to some African and Middle Eastern nations.

The foreign minister will reach New York on May 17 and address the first session of the food security conference on May 18 at the UN headquarters. He will also address the second session, on May 19, at the UN Security Council.

The foreign minister’s one-on-one meeting with Secretary Blinken may happen on the sidelines of the conference as a separate meeting in Washington seems unlikely.

PPP chairman assures Chinese nationals of complete security; asks ministers to set targets for themselves

The Pakistan mission at the UN is facilitating the foreign minister’s engagement at the food security conference while the embassy in Washi­ng­ton is working on the expected bilateral meeting.On Thursday, Mr Bhutto-Zardari virtually addressed a Covid-19 summit at the White House and acknowledged that “the US was immensely generous in providing 62 million vaccines to Pakistan”.He, however, added that “China, from the outset, also supported us tremendously”, underlining Islama­bad’s need to maintain a balance between the two major world powers.

Pakistan’s decision to participate in a conference, which will highlight the impact of Russia’s invasion on food supplies across the globe, signals a major departure from the policies of ex-PM Imran Khan.

Security for Chinese

Also on Saturday, Mr Bhutto-Zardari reassured the provision of security to Chinese nationals and said the government would not rest until the perpetrators of the Karachi attack were given exemplary punishment. He was speaking at a memorial service held at the Foreign Office to pay homage to victims of April 26 attack in which four people, including three Chinese teachers, lost their lives. In a bid to reassure the Chinese government, the foreign minister said: “We will also not allow anyone to harm our iron-clad friendship.” “I also avail myself of this opportunity to pledge complete safety and maximum security for our Chinese friends in Pakistan. You are our guests, and we are determined to ensure your safety and comfort in our country,” he added. He hailed the three Chinese nationals who were killed in the attack, as “dedicated, caring and loving teachers” and said they were pursuing the noble mission to educate Pakistani students in Chinese language and building bridges between both nations.

Meeting of ministers

Separately, while chairing a meeting of PPP federal ministers on Saturday, Mr Bhutto-Zardari was briefed on future plans of their respective ministries. According to an official handout issued by the PPP Media Office, Mr Bhutto-Zardari was also briefed on the performance of the ministries by the respective federal ministers and the future plans regarding public welfare. Speaking on the occasion, the foreign minister said that the immediate solution to the problems of the people was possible only “when you have a strong connection with the common man.”

One of the ministers told Dawn that the PPP chairman had presided over a virtual meeting in which he had also asked them to set targets.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1689749/bilawals-new-york-visit-a-balancing-act

#Pakistan - Foreign Minister, Chairman Bilawal condemns the killings of Sikh citizens in Peshawar

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has condemned and expressed concern over the killing of Sikh citizens in Peshawar.

The accused involved in the killings of Sikh citizens should be arrested immediately, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said.

No one will be allowed to disturb inter-faith harmony in the country and harm national unity. PPP is the real representative party of all sections of the country and will not leave the Sikh community alone.

Chairman Bilawal expressed heartfelt sympathy and solidarity with the bereaved families.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/27015/