“Justice Clarence Thomas, acting alone,” granted a temporary stay that blocks the right of a Missouri inmate to have an abortion. (MSNBC).
Lest we jump to conclusions, Judge Thomas handles appeals from “the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Missouri. He could lift the stay over the weekend, after reviewing more legal arguments.” (However, I rather doubt he’ll lift the stay, and may take further action.)
The woman, who has said she will borrow money from family and friends to pay for the abortion, cannot raise enough to pay for transportation to the medical facility. The state of Missouri had balked at providing transportation because state law “forbids spending tax dollars to facilitate an abortion.” However, “U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple ruled Thursday that the prison system was blocking the woman from exercising her right to an abortion and ordered that the woman be taken to the clinic Saturday.” An appeals court Friday upheld Whipple’s ruling.
Judge Thomas’s stay holds, “pending a further decision by himself or the full court [SCOTUS].”
The woman’s attorney, James Felakos of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in court papers that the woman is running out of time because she is 16 weeks to 17 weeks pregnant, and Missouri bars abortions after 22 weeks.
In court papers, the woman said she discovered she was pregnant shortly after being arrested in California in July on a Missouri parole violation. She said she tried to get an abortion in California but was transferred back to Missouri before it could be performed.
I’m curious why it is that Clarence Thomas is in charge of the 8th circuit, and which states are in that circuit. I found a map, and am putting it up shortly. I also want to find a list of which justices cover which circuits — and I further want to know who decides those assignments. Are those assignments political? I.e., was Thomas given the 8th circuit because it’s a conservative area and he’ll back their more conservative rulings? The map is up — below the fold:
Okay. They won’t pay for the transportation to the abortion clinic. Are they going to pay for trips for pre-natal care and the care itself? Are they going to make sure this woman gets proper nutrition and vitamin supplements? Are they going to pay for the delivery? Will they allow the woman to breast-feed her baby? In her cell? Will the state then pay for the baby’s foster care until the woman is released? Then, what? Huh? Huh? I wanna know, dammit!
All excellent questions and I’ll bet the answer most likely is probably zip as to any real help. Add one more child to ‘child left behind’ or am I being way to pessimistic?
As long as the woman is white, I’m sure the plan is to take the baby away and have it adopted by some lovely, white Christians. So they probably will provide her pre-natal care to make sure they get a healthy product, I mean, baby.
It’s up to the Chief. From Moore’s Federal Practice:
Chief Justice Rehnquist: D.C. Cir./4th/Fed. Cir.
Justice Stevens: 6th/7th
Justice O’Connor: 9th
Justice Scalia: 5th
Justice Kennedy: 11th
Justice Souter: 1st/3d
Justice Thomas: 8th
Justice Ginsburg: 2d
Justice Breyer: 10th
Justice,
For the First Circuit, David H. Souter, Associate Justice,
For the Second Circuit, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice,
For the Third Circuit, David H. Souter, Associate Justice,
For the Fourth Circuit, John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice,
For the Fifth Circuit, Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice,
For the Sixth Circuit, John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice,
For the Seventh Circuit, John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice,
For the Eighth Circuit, Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice,
For the Ninth Circuit, Sandra Day O’Connor, Associate Justice,
For the Tenth Circuit, Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice,
For the Eleventh Circuit, Anthony M. Kennedy, Associate Justice,
For the Federal Circuit, John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice.
Hold up here a sec., does this mean then, since Roberts is “overlord” (I love that!) of the DC Circuit that it may be possible for an appeal to be made, under this Rule 22, straight to Roberts, and he ALONE will rule on them, in any cases that may spring from the Fitzgerald investigation??
Is this possible? I feel a bit tin-foil-ly just now!
himself to the 4th circuit as well — covering bases?
I suspect that Roberts just took over Rehnquist’s circuits, at least for now. No clue what he’ll do once O’Connor is replaced–he could just assign the new Justice to the Ninth Circuit, or he could reshuffle the whole thing. It seems to be entirely his call.
The “safety valve” on Rule 22 applications is that if the Circuit Justice denies the application, the applicant is free to go to any other Supreme Court Justice. If that happens, though, the practice is to refer the matter to the Supreme Court as a whole. So one Justice can’t block the entire Court from hearing a matter.
Thanks for explaining!
So, in this case, can the woman’s lawyer bypass Thomas’ stay by taking it to the whole court? Or would that just take even longer?
I’m not 100% sure of the procedural details, but I think that she’d first have to apply to Thomas to lift the stay, then go to the rest of the Court if (when) Thomas denied that application. These things move pretty fast when there’s an imminent execution at issue, but I don’t know how long something like this might take. Unfortunately, if there’s any foot-dragging, it’ll be too late for her to get the abortion–and that could be the easy way out for the Court.
“Alloted as Circuit justices” – and just how does that twist around to mean he is now the sovereign ruler of that district? I read it to mean he may be called upon at times to serve as a judge in the district if needed, not that the other district judges are under his command.
It’s possible (through Supreme Court Rule 22) to apply directly to the Justice for a particular circuit for relief from a ruling of the circuit court of appeals. The rule is most commonly used to seek a stay of execution in death penalty cases. So instead of an appeal to the Supreme Court as a whole, a Rule 22 application goes to a single Justice.
Is there some way we can chip in and provide the funds for her transportation to the medical facility?
I read this this morning and was asking myself the same questions..and thanks for the map susan. And this is just one more area of the SC court I was unaware of-that they are each ‘overlords’ of specific areas of the country.
Also sounds like another way to get around states rights if they choose to become involved in a specific state issue.
while I am extremely disadvantaged financially now, I’d contribute the grand sum of $10 toward the transportation costs for this woman if there were a mechanism to do so that would allow her to proceedto obtain the abortion.
I would also back any legislation that made it illegal for the state of Missouri to incarcerate any pregnant women at all, on the grounds that their policy against providing ancilliary services to inmates seeking abortion would inevitably transgress against that inmate’s basic rights under the law.
THANKS for all the great comments! I was going to look up more stuff, but we went to the store and got a flat tire! Waiting for the mechanic! SYL LATER!
I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to SHAMELESSLY steal this and post it at MLW — with proper credit, natch.