Kennedy strikes again: Supreme Court stays Texas abortion limitation law

A commenter asked why I picked on Anthony Kennedy in my initial reaction to the destruction of marriage decision issued last week, when there was another ‘Catholic’ justice who voted in favor of this demonic nightmare (Sotomayor).  Well, I did that for two reasons…….one, this is about the umpteenth time Kennedy has voted against the solemnly proclaimed Doctrine of the Faith – it was he who kept abortion legal in Casey vs. Planned Parenthood, he who de-criminalized sodomy in Lawrence vs. Texas (and wrote the solipsistic majority opinion), he who cast the deciding vote in 2013 in favor of the federal government recognizing “same sex marriage” as actual marriage……and those are just the highlights.  Secondly, and more importantly, while Sotomayor does not present herself as a faithful, orthodox Catholic, she acknowledges she differs from the Church on a number of matters, Kennedy DOES present himself as a faithful Catholic.  That’s a big distinction.

Anyway, Kennedy has struck again, staying the implementation of aspects of Texas House Bill 2 which has resulted in the shuttering of a large majority of the state’s abortion mills.  It is quite possible given this stay, some which had shut down will re-open, at least temporarily:

The Supreme Court barred Texas on Monday from implementing a law that would have forced more than half the state’s 19 abortion clinics to close their doors this week.

The law, which was to take effect Wednesday, would require clinics to adhere to strict new physical standards and the doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.

The court granted the reprieve after abortion rights groups requested an emergency stay, having unsuccessfully sought to have the law overturned. The stay will probably remain in place at least through the summer while the parties assemble a legal case and the court decides whether to take it up in the next term.

The court did not offer a reason for its 5-to-4 decision, and the law’s ultimate fate remains unclear. The court’s reliably conservative justices — Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. — dissented and would have let the law take effect.

So what are the odds Kennedy will let HB2 stand?  I’d say about 50:1 against, at least.

I have been heartened by some of the reaction I have seen to last week’s travesty of a decision.  I have seen a large number of conservatives finally, if belatedly, come to the realization that the Supreme Court decades ago ceased to be a deliberative body dedicated to interpreting the Constitution with respect to various laws and regulations, and has in fact become a “third legislature” of nine unelected lawyers (see Scalia’s blistering dissent) whose function is to enact social revolution which could never, or only with great difficulty, have been enacted by normal legislative action (re: “democracy”) into law.

That this is true is revealed by the fact that no one, anywhere, ever had any doubt as to which way any of the four hard leftists on the Court would vote on these matters.  It was simply never in doubt.  That’s because these leftists don’t give a whit for the Constitution or what it says, they are there to carry out the revolution by other means.  This has been the case for at least 60 years and frankly, longer than that.

And the “conservatives”…..please.  None of them is rock solid, and Kennedy has morphed more and more into an out and out leftist, at least so far as social matters are concerned.  But every single one of them can be turned to statism on this issue or that, as Thomas showed when he voted with the leftist block to support a TEXAS law forbidding Confederate flag symbols (for the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization) on Texas license plates.  Scalia supports statism when it comes to law enforcement and the “war on drugs,” Roberts of course has tied himself in knots trying to find ways to keep Obamacare “constitutional”…….they all will squish on one issue or the other.  And since the four leftists are utterly unmovable, all it takes is one.

On a more important matter, how have we as a nation come to this point?  How have we come to the point when the Church’s very ability to exist in this country is coming under severe threat?

I think we all know……we are here due to the ABJECT, MANIFEST AND NEAR TOTAL FAILURE of episcopal leadership in this country and around the world going back to the late 1800s when the foul and never fully repressed Americanist heresy reared its ugly head.  The Church as we have experienced it in this country over the past several decades is simply Americanism in action – indifferentism masked as ecumenism, excess focus on public or social virtues, doctrinal weakness/incoherence, toleration of rebellion, excess deference to protestantism, liturgical abuse, and most of all, heaping doses of moral cowardice masquerading as a false virtue of tolerance.  We have come to this point because the leadership of the Church has not only not fought hard enough against the sexular pagan revolution, many key players willingly aided and advanced the sexular pagan revolution through their covert relations with Planned Barrenhood, their Hyannisport meetings, their Land O’ Lakes conference and their “seamless garments.”  They have, very nearly to a man, totally failed in their duty to exercise Church discipline, protect the sanctity of the Church’s doctrinal edifice, and use the (truly charitable) means available to them to stamp out heresy and abuse.  Instead they have played footsie with heresy and cozied up to politicians and others who have done massive damage to the Faith, all out of desire to “maintain a place at the table” and keep the privileges enjoyed in the past for as long as possible, the impact to souls be damned.

God will not be mocked.  He allows our sins to destroy us or at the very least really, really chastise us.  The Church in this country is about to go through an unbelievable chastisement due to the failure – at all levels, it must be said – to live the Faith rightly for decades now.  It is not going to be at all pretty, or fun.  It’s going to be a bitter trial and diabolical confusion.

As I said, may God have mercy on us all.  I do think we shall have many opportunities for heroic virtue in the days ahead.