Abortion Foes Finally Find a Reason to Hate Merrick Garland

Obama’s Supreme Court nominee once praised the release of the papers of the author of Roe v. Wade.

Supreme Court nominee Merrick GarlandAP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

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For the past 25 years, Supreme Court nomination battles have often been proxy skirmishes in the culture wars, particularly over abortion, which has been a litmus test for any potential court nominee. But with his appointment of DC Circuit Chief Judge Merrick Garland to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, President Barack Obama has left the anti-abortion foes a bit stymied.

That’s because the DC Circuit, where Garland has served for the past 19 years, almost never ends up on the frontlines of the culture wars; cases involving abortion or gay marriage rarely appear on its docket, which is heavily weighted with regulatory issues. And as someone who spent most of his pre-judicial career as a federal prosecutor, Garland hasn’t had many opportunities to weigh in on Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Despite having gone through the judicial confirmation process once before, and having been vetted for the Supreme Court in 2010, his record on the subject appears to be almost entirely blank. So the anti-abortion groups that have played such a huge role in prior court nomination fights have been struggling to find a really good reason to oppose him, aside from the fact that he was chosen by Obama.

Finally, one of those groups appears to have hit the opposition-research jackpot. Americans United for Life, which refers to itself as “the nation’s premier pro-life legal team,” today sent out a press release reiterating its opposition to the Senate holding confirmation hearings on any of Obama’s Supreme Court nominees this year. Garland is “Obama’s pro-abortion pick,” the group asserted.

As evidence for its position, AUL points to this little bit of unconvincing evidence: Apparently, Garland once spoke at a gathering celebrating the 2005 release of a book on the late Justice Harry Blackmun by veteran New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse. After Blackmun’s death, Greenhouse had drawn heavily on the release of a huge treasure trove of Blackmun’s papers—papers Garland called “a great gift to the country.” Blackmun was the author of Roe v. Wade.

That’s it.

Acting AUL President Clarke Forsythe promised to help disseminate more such incriminating information to help the Senate decide what to do with Garland’s nomination. “Americans United for Life looks forward to assisting the Senate leadership in evaluating prospective nominees when the time is right,” he said.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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