Crom Carmichael Examines the Politicization of the U.S. Supreme Court

Crom Carmichael Examines the Politicization of the U.S. Supreme Court

 

Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio

Leahy: In studio, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael. Crom, I want to get back to that Supreme Court discussion. First, I’ve got a little bit of a curveball.

Carmichael: Sure. Yes.

Leahy: I’m going to throw you a curveball. Federal prosecutors indicated on Tuesday they will drop the charges against the former president of Pilot Flying J, Mark Hazelwood, and two other employees. Did you know that?

Carmichael: Wait, I’m sorry.

Leahy: Federal prosecutors indicated on Tuesday they will drop the charges against the former president of Pilot Flying J, Mark Hazelwood, and two other employees. They were convicted in this sort of kickback scheme and it was overturned in an appeals court. And now the federal prosecutors are going to drop the charges.

Carmichael: That’s local because Pilot and Flying J have been merged.

Leahy: Yeah, it’s over.

Carmichael: So they won in the appeals. These people …

Leahy: They were convicted.

Carmichael: And then the conviction was overturned.

Leahy: In appeals on a two-to-one decision. Now the federal prosecutors have said we’re going to drop the charges. It’s an interesting story.

Carmichael: I haven’t followed that enough to be able to make any kind of comment.

Leahy: Well, I’m not making any comment other than noticing that development because our listeners are interested because Pilot Flying J is a big company. And of course, the Haslam family owns it.

Carmichael: And very successful.

Leahy: A very successful company.

Carmichael: I buy a lot of my fuels and snacks on the interstates from either Pilot Flying J.

Leahy: (Chuckles) There you go.

Carmichael: But to continue on the Supreme Court thing, Kimberley Strassel goes on to point out that Justice Breyer is very aware. This is interesting to me. Chief Justice John Roberts, is constantly fretting over the Democrat Party’s efforts to undermine the court’s legitimacy and is therefore always in search of a unanimous or near-unanimous opinion.

In order to get a unanimous or near-unanimous opinion, you have to water down your opinion. And so Breyer is now, as the senior liberal, is in a better position to get what he wants in an opinion in that he will say, alright, I will agree with the majority, if you reshape the final opinion this way.

Now, this will be interesting. Let’s use this Mississippi abortion case as an example. This one will be almost impossible if the so-called conservatives on the court believe that the state of Mississippi has the right to determine when life begins. And essentially, whether or not the states have rights or whether or not it’s a national law that has to apply everywhere.

Breyer won’t be able to influence that decision. That’s why decisions sometimes end up five, four, or six, three. In the court today, it would be a six, three. But Breyer does try. And the percentage of cases that end up in nine nothing or eight one is more than 50 percent. They take about 70 cases a year.

Leahy: And so probably maybe 10 of them are controversial. 10 or 15, yeah. By the way, you mentioned that case from the state of Mississippi in which the court will look at the precedent established by the Roe v. Wade case on abortion.

Our lead story at The Tennessee Star, a group called the Constitutional Government Defense Fund joined 22 other state family policy organizations, including the Family Action Council of Tennessee, and filed an amicus brief in that case. And former state Senator David Fowler is with the Family Action Council here in Tennessee.

Carmichael: The way the left portrays these types of court decisions is, they say, overturning Roe v. Wade, they claim would end the right to abortion. And that is false.

If this case were to – if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mississippi in this case, then the law in Mississippi that had been passed by the Mississippi legislature assigned by the government would be effective in the state of Mississippi. It wouldn’t be effective in California or New York or any other state for that matter.

Leahy: Exactly.

Carmichael: But what it would do is it would mean that in states, for example, I believe, and so correct me if I’m wrong. Here in Tennessee, we have passed a Heartbeat Bill or something. That is where once a heartbeat is detected –

Leahy: I think the courts have overturned that. But let me add just one little caveat here. It doesn’t surprise me, but it’s another long, long, long list of disappointments with Chief Justice Roberts.

I believe that the state that – what Kimberley Strassel wrote in that report  – that Chief Justice Roberts is fretting over the Democratic Party’s constant attacks on the legitimacy of the court,

I think it’s exactly true. I think that explains his posture on this. This is why he basically made the wrong decision in NFIB v. Sebelius, which basically gave Obamacare the blessing of the Supreme Court way back in 2012. He’s been doing that kind of juxtaposition for years, and I don’t like it.

Carmichael: I think your assessment is correct. And I think Kimberley Strassel points out that even the Supreme Court is still political.

Leahy: And Chief Justice Roberts is very concerned.

Carmichael: They’re humans. They’re all humans.

Leahy: The chief justice is very concerned that I don’t like his approach here. (Carmichael laughs)

Listen to the full third hour here:

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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crom Carmichael Weighs in on the Mississippi Case That Challenges the Constitutionality of the 2018 Abortion Law

Crom Carmichael Weighs in on the Mississippi Case That Challenges the Constitutionality of the 2018 Abortion Law

 

Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to discuss the Mississippi case, which will challenge the constitutionality of the state’s 2018 law prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks.

Leahy: We heard in that news break that the Supreme Court, when it convenes in October, will hear an abortion case on abortion rights.

I’ll read to you from the Heritage Foundation a description in their news outlet of how they described that story in May when the Supreme Court made that decision to hear the case.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Mississippi case challenging the constitutionality of that state’s 2018 law prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks, except in the cases of a medical emergency or when a severe fetal abnormality is detected.

The high court’s announcement that it will hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization came after it considered the case in conference no fewer than 12 separate times.

The ramifications of Dobbs to be argued nearly 49 years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand in Roe v. Wade promised to reverberate for some time.

This case was challenged and decided in the lower courts against the state of Mississippi.

They declared that the 2018 law was unconstitutional. Now, the Supreme Court is going to say, wait a minute. Let’s see if that – if we really agree with that.

Carmichael: The lower court probably decided correctly, given the Supreme Court rulings of the past. This is one of those ones where Judge Scalia says a judge has to rule according to the law, not according to their feelings.

So I’m going to guess that probably the courts ruled correctly, given the Supreme Court presence. That does mean that I agree that they’re correct.

And it doesn’t even mean that I agree that the previous Supreme Court rulings are correct under actual law. But once the Supreme Court rules, that then becomes the law.

Leahy: I’m just going to describe a little bit more on this story.

Carmichael: Sure.

Leahy: In deciding to grant the petition in that Mississippi case, Dobbs, the Supreme Court indicated it will consider only one of the questions raised by Mississippi and its appeal.

One that is both simple and monumental. Are all prohibitions on elective abortions before the child is viable outside the womb unconstitutional?

Carmichael: Yeah. And that’s the key. That’s the key. That’s what we were talking about earlier. You did a great job, Michael, of setting this up by reading what the Heritage said because I think you said it went through 12 different, in other words, it wasn’t something that got passed in the middle of the night.

Leahy: The decision to take the case.

Carmichael: No, no, no. I’m talking about even Mississippi, when they were passing it, they were very deliberate in the legislative process.

Leahy: No. The high court’s announcement that it will hear arguments came after it, the high court considered the case in the conference no fewer than 12 separate times.

Carmichael: Okay. All right. Excuse me. Then the court is being very deliberate.

Leahy: Exactly.

Carmichael: In the way they’re doing it. What we have here in Mississippi, select review for our listeners. The Mississippi legislature passed a law that outlaws abortion after 15 weeks with certain exceptions. And those exceptions include …

Leahy: Medical emergencies or when a severe fetal abnormality is detected.

Carmichael: Yes. Those are the two outside of 15 weeks. The Supreme Court has essentially said what it’s going to rule on is whether or not a state has the right to determine when life begins.

Leahy: Answer this question. Are all prohibitions on elective abortions before the child is viable outside the womb unconstitutional?

Carmichael: So you have, for example, in Virginia, they literally tried to pass a bill. I don’t think it actually passed. Governor Northam was trying to explain it.

And he is a doctor who delivers babies. He said, yes after the baby is born, you make it comfortable.

Leahy: And then you have a conference to decide whether you should let it live or not. That’s crazy.

Carmichael: In Virginia, they were actually trying to pass that law.

Leahy: I don’t think that law passed.

Carmichael: It did not pass. But they were trying to. And now, the question is, should the people of Mississippi be prohibited from saying that that law in Virginia is wrong? And should we have a different set of laws? As the story says, it is simple, and it is monumental.

Leahy: Absolutely.

Listen to the full third hour here:

– – –

Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.