Brett Stephens: Hello Gale. Last week we issued two monumental Supreme Court decisions regarding guns and abortion. It may not be a fair question, but which one is scary, discouraged, furious, or wants to hit your head against a wall?
Gail Collins: I’m completely traumatized by both of them — but I admit, I was pretty much expecting everything that happened.
Brett: Lines doing rounds: It’s like knowing that daylight savings time is coming and putting your watch back 50 years ago.
Gail: Perhaps I’m most enthusiastic about the gun decision because I know how many great colleagues are gathering for the abortion partner. Here we are in New York. New York is a relatively safe city, thanks to the local gun control we have observed. But a conservative attachment to law and order disappears whenever it interferes with the right-wing attachment to their guns.
I’m sorry, I rant. Your thoughts?
Brett: You aren’t ranting at all. Or rather, he vomits abusive words.
Gail: OK, if I get permission to rant, I’ll end up with an abortion decision. Read Clarence Thomas’s claim agreement on how this is the first step — next goal: same-sex marriage and women’s overall right to buy contraceptives.
Brett: Give him a point of honesty. It’s more than you can say about Brett Kavanaugh.
Gail: I wrote a while ago that Texas’s abortion law in September last year could be the first step in the fight against all forms of contraception that are more efficient than the rhythm method, but in the Supreme Court’s opinion. I didn’t expect my thoughts to come up. ..
I know it’s from Thomas’s comment, but it’s very important to know which one this way of thinking refers to. The power of women to decide whether they want to get pregnant was the key to our liberation. If you get rid of it, there was no effective way to know when you would get pregnant, so you’re back in the days when a woman was expected to quit her job after getting married. And to avoid sex altogether if you’re single, as you can get pregnant and ruin your reputation and career.
all right. It’s time to get in here.
Brett: I agree with everything you say. The words that come to my mind are arrogant. The best arrogance.
In the gun decision, the court denies the usual democratic right to decide for itself how New York State should work to ensure domestic tranquility. the The basic function of the government. In the Mississippi abortion case, the courts are doing the opposite. Until last Friday, it has given the state government the free ability to eradicate individual rights that have been upheld by the court for nearly 50 years.
That said, I’m probably not as pessimistic as you. There may even be some positive points.
Gail: Hey, what do you tell me-quickly.
Brett: Maybe this is the proverbial pig lipstick, but there are three things.
Politically, last week was a very good week for the Democrats. National conversations suddenly changed from product prices to valuable products: personal safety and choice. There is a chance for the Democratic Party to hold a Senate in November. They may also begin to regain some of the seats lost in the state legislature, where the future of abortion rights is determined.
Gail: Republican, this is the distance you failed: Bret Stephens is helping the Democrats take over all Congress.
Brett: As long as they are parent business, parent police, parent Israel, parent charter school. In other words, Mike Bloomberg.
My second optimism, medically speaking, is that we are in a different world than in 1972 and 1973. Abortion medications that work up to 10 weeks gestation are currently widely available and are available by mail as of December. It’s far from the ideal solution, but it helps to mitigate the impact of the court’s decision.
Gail: We are waiting for the Texas Parliament to take over the next pharmacy. I’m not really long-term confident, but you’re right for now. And that’s one of the reasons why the gun decision made me even more crazy.
Brett: The Last Glitter of Optimism: Newyork and other states where gun control is affected by court decisions will find legal workarounds to slow down the decision, including adding training requirements.
Gail: Yes, but it’s not so easy for police to be efficient in cracking down on illegal weapons. Or to contain a large number of self-made gun kits that arrive by mail.
One of the ideas you’ve proposed in the past that looks really attractive today is to create skill criteria. Anyone who owns a gun must be able to pass a test that proves that they have at least minimal ability to hit what they are pointing at.
Brett: At that time, the National Rifle Association was known primarily as a group that taught shooting and the safe handling of firearms. Maybe it can go back to it instead of being a jaguar note of lobbying that facilitates the slaughter on the moon.
Gail: I would still be against this change if I thought that everyone in New York would just shoot their intended goal, but I’m not as afraid as it is now. My strong impression is that many people with guns have little or no training. To tell the truth, my experience with the police suggests that many of them have good intentions, but many do not have a good purpose.
Brett: Recall the story of the gun battle that parents found when the “good guy with the gun” began firing at the bad guy with the gun that was robbing our house in Mexico. The coffee table my mother covered was a solid mahogany.
Gail: Wow, I want more details by next week. And Brett, before leaving this topic, must admit that if Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not refuse to retire before Barack Obama resigned, he might not be able to survive this tragic moment. It will not be.
I’m a big fan of Justice Ginsberg. I cherish the memories of the day she spent with her while she was in her courtroom. But she was in her eighties, people were begging her to resign, and she just seemed to be waiting for Hillary Clinton to become the next president.
Brett: To be fair, she wasn’t alone in the hope.
Gail: Even if the court was split into 5-4 instead of 6-3, it could have made bad decisions about these cases, but Judge John Roberts said that the numbers would bring things closer to the center. I made it pretty clear.
Brett: As you know, Gale, I supported the nominations of Neil Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, but not the nominations of Amy Coney Barrett. I think they are closer to Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy in their judicial temperament than the moral enthusiasm of Judges Thomas and Samuel Alito in favor of Law in the 1992 Casey decision. rice field. Now is a pretty good time to admit that I was wrong and you were right.
Gail: Love it when you do it.
Brett: My acceptance of mistakes is like Bill Clinton’s abortion goal. Safe, legal and rare.
Gail: Before we leave the gun and abortion of the day, I would like to scream to Senator, especially Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who passed the actual gun control bill last week. It wasn’t the kind of assault rifle ban that many of us wanted, but it took things forward — those who expanded the background checks of young gun buyers and showed that records were potential. Encourages a danger signal law that allows you to easily remove weapons from dangerous.
Brett: Congratulations to Republican Senators, especially John Cornyn of Texas, who has shown political courage to lead bipartisan efforts. Conin is not the other Texas Senator: Adults.
Gail: It’s not super reform, but Congress has done at least something — for the first time in a few years. And, alas, the Supreme Court was able to divert our attention with its terrible horror.
Brett: Gail, one of the things I’ve learned from conversations with you is that history is full of a wider range of horrors that capture us in perspective. On Friday, I was with a close family friend, Luis Stillman, a survivor of the Mauthausen concentration camp. I told his story in a column a few years ago. I turned 100 in December. He has just returned from a trip to Europe. Buba, a survivor of him and his wife Auschwitz, is busy planning another trip to Israel to visit their beloved Weizmann Institute of Science in November.
If Lewis and Buba can maintain a positive and positive attitude, we can do so too.