Two Supreme Courts ruled very differently in the last few days. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, sanely, that the Trump lawyers can be sanctioned. The Alabama Supremes, ruled that frozen embryos are children. First the crazy one.
Dan Rosenzweig-Ziffn reported last night that because the frozen embryos are children, someone who destroys them can be held liable. “The Alabama case focused on whether a patient who mistakenly dropped and destroyed other couples’ frozen embryos could be held liable in a wrongful-death lawsuit. The court ruled the patient could, writing that it had long held that ‘unborn children are children’ and that that was also true for frozen embryos, affording the fertilized eggs the same protection as babies under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. ‘It applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation,’ the court wrote. ‘It is not the role of this Court to craft a new limitation based on our own view of what is or is not wise public policy. That is especially true where, as here, the People of this State have adopted a Constitutional amendment directly aimed at stopping courts from excluding ‘unborn life’ from legal protection.’ The decision overruled a lower court that dismissed the suit because it said the embryos did not fit the definition of a child.” It’s just a matter of time that these psychopaths will rule that if a man ejaculates outside of marital coitus he’ll be guilty of murder too.
The U.S. Supreme Court— and, as far as I know, Clarence Thomas hasn’t taken John Oliver up on his million dollar and year offer to resign yet (+a new luxury RV)— today rejected appeals by crackpot Trump lawyers who have been sanctioned for baselessly alleging in court that the 2020 election in Michigan was stolen.
Reporting for NBC News, Lawrence Hurley wrote that Trump cheerleaders’ “efforts to overturn the election including Sidney Powell and Lin Wood were among the nine lawyers who initially faced sanctions for filing the lawsuit. Powell called the group ‘the Kraken.’ The appeals court upheld sanctions against seven of them, including Powell and Wood. The lawyers were ordered to pay legal fees, undertake new legal training and were referred to their respective state bar associations for any disciplinary procedures. The lawsuit alleged among other things that there was an international conspiracy to swing votes to Biden, with ‘hostile foreign governments’ gaining access to voting machines.”
Lawyers ultimately withdrew the lawsuit after the election was certified, but not before defendants including state officials asked for sanctions.
Powell and Wood, as well as other Trump-affiliated lawyers have faced other investigations as part of their involvement in the 2020 election.
Powell pleaded guilty in Georgia as part of a probe into election interference. Wood has retired amid various investigations into his conduct.
UPDATE: Marjorie Traitor Greene
Also today, the Supreme Court unanimously refused to revive a lawsuit from Greene and two of her crackpot colleagues, Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ralph Norman (R-SC), after their pay was docked ($500) for not complying with a pandemic-era mask requirement on the chamber floor. In the end Greene racked up more than $100,000 in fines.