This is my inaugural Daily Docket. I’ll try to do daily analysis of the Federal and Georgia goings-on at the top level of government. I’ll post them in the afternoon after I have an opportunity to glean some insight from the information. This is all done by me — I have no writers. So, all opinions are mine. Here we go:
First, the United States Supreme Court denied to hear an abortion ban case from Arizona today. The ban restricted abortion rights for women after 20 weeks of gestation; however, was set aside by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, stating:
Allowing a physician to decide if abortion is medically necessary is not the same as allowing a woman to decide whether to carry her own pregnancy to term. Moreover, regulations involve limitations as to the mode and manner of abortion, not preclusion of the choice to terminate a pregnancy altogether. Arizona’s twenty-week law is a preclusion prior to fetal viability and is thus invalid under binding Supreme Court precedent.
The Supreme Court denying the appeal of the State of Arizona means that the law is, for all intents and purposes, invalid as unconstitutional. Therefore the ban cannot be enforced and the right to choose to end a pregnancy after 20 weeks is still preserved.
Second, oral argument was held today in the case of NLRB v. Noel Canning, where the issue of presidential recess appointments to the NLRB while the Senate is in session (albeit a limited session convening every three days) is taken to task. If Noel prevails, the presidential recess appointments are invalid and the requisite quorum of a board decision is not present, invalidating the board’s decision. This is critical, because earlier in President Obama’s administration, the Supreme Court ruled that empty seats don’t affect the statutory requirement of a quorum, and two sitting appointees is not enough.
According to many, the arguments did not go well for President Obama’s administration; however, early punditry is often wrong. We will just have to wait and see.
Follow me on Twitter at @DavidTDorer. Like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidThomasDorer