This story is straightforward and ethically simple. Apparently neither Republicans, nor Democrats, nor abortion activists, nor the President, not the news media is capable or willing to say so. I guess that leaves it up to me.

When the constantly legislating Supreme Court of the Sixties and Seventies illegally made up a Constitutional right that didn’t exist—the right to have an abortion limited only by the Supreme Court’s arbitrary limit based on that decade’s belief regarding “viability”,””— in its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, it stole away the power to make laws regulating abortion in the states. This, in turn rendered unenforceable a law in Arizona dating from its days as a territory in 1864 (Arizona didn’t become a state until 1912) that almost completely banned abortion. The law was still valid in 1973; laws passed by the territorial government were all grandfathered into the state statute book, and nobody disputed that they had to be treated like any other law until such laws were amended or repealed.

When the Supreme Court correctly if ridiculously tardily declared Roe to be the bad law, bad theory and irresponsible power grab by SCOTUS that it was in the Dobbs decision overturning it, that Arizona law was, as Dr. Frankenstein would say, “Alive! It’s alive!” And so it was. The beginning of the majority opinion in Planned Parenthood et al v Kristin Mayes/Mayes Hazelrigg tells you pretty much all you need to know, though reading the whole opinion and its dissents in the 4-2 ruling is worth the time. The opinion begins,

We consider whether the Arizona Legislature repealed or otherwise restricted A.R.S. § 13-3603 by enacting the abortion statutes in Title 36.2 namely A.R.S. § 36-2322, the statute proscribing physicians from performing elective abortions after fifteen weeks’ gestation. This case involves statutory interpretation—it does not rest on the justices’ morals or public policy views regarding abortion; nor does it rest on § 13-3603’s constitutionality, which is not before us. We conclude that § 36-2322 does not create a right to, or otherwise provide independent statutory authority for, an abortion that repeals or restricts § 13-3603, but rather is predicated entirely on the existence of a federal constitutional right to an abortion since disclaimed by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215, 292 (2022). Absent the federal constitutional abortion right, and because § 36-2322 does not independently authorize abortion, there is no provision in federal or state law prohibiting § 13-3603’s operation. Accordingly, § 13-3603 is now enforceable.

A.R.S. § 13-3603 is the 1864 law. § 36-2322 is a law passed during Roe’s illicit reign. The Arizona court’s decision follows basic principles of jurisprudence and the rule of law: Can’t have that! The new law couldn’t have repealed the 1864 law, because the 1864 law wasn’t in force when it was passed. Once the earlier, anti-abortion law was returned to the books by Roe’s demise, the newer law, with the 15 week limit on abortions, became invalid. As the opinion says in its introduction, the decision is based on law, not morals or the justices opinions about abortion. Their job is to follow the law.

The old law is too restrictive; almost everyone believes that. Therefore, the course is clear: repeal it or amend it. But politicians and the news media, because they are unprincipled scum essentially, don’t want the public to understand that, so they are emphasizing that the law is old, archaic, “Civil War era”—it doesn’t matter! It’s a LAW. Laws don’t evaporate or become shrugs because they have been around for a long time or people don’t like them. If a law no longer makes sense, then fix it or get rid of it. The thing is called “democracy.”

That’s all the Arizona Supreme Court was saying, and correctly so. But Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (guess which party) blamed the justices for rejuvenating a law “written by men 48 years before Arizona even became a state” that “threatens the lives of countless women and strips us of control over our bodies.” Oh, stick a sock in it, Governor. Get to work and repeal the law. Nah, says Katie, she and Attorney General Kris Mayes will just pretend it doesn’t exist, except as a partisan weapon. They both announced that they would never enforce the law. That’s the progressive way, after all: ignore laws you don’t like.

When intractable same-sex marriage government bureaucrats said that they wouldn’t process gay marriages, the Left exploded with indignation, but this is the same song, different chorus. Hypocrites.

Naturally President Joe Biden, having no principles or shame, posted on Twitter/X about the law (it wasn’t really him, as you know) calling the old Arizona law a “more extreme abortion ban that fails to protect women when their health is at risk or in cases of rape or incest” that is “back because of Republican elected officials committed to ripping away women’s freedom.” How does Joe figure that, exactly?

Other reactions that show no fealty to the rule of law while encouraging hysteria:

Angela Florez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona said, “Today’s deplorable decision sends Arizona back nearly 150 years. We know that today’s ruling does not reflect the will of the people, as Arizonans are overwhelmingly in favor of abortion access. Instead, it is the latest card in anti-abortion extremists’ deck of cruel and harmful tactics to strip Arizonans of their right to live under a rule of law that respects our bodily autonomy and reproductive decisions. It is unfortunate and unacceptable that Arizonans cannot even depend on our Supreme Court to look past personal ideology and impartially apply the law.”

What a lying hack. The Supreme Court simply declared that laws are laws unless they are repealed. She is the one not capable of reasoning past her bias. Her blather continued:

“We know that abortion bans, including this one from the Civil War-era, are rooted in America’s legacy of racism and discrimination…”

Authority, please?

“…This near-total abortion ban will be catastrophic for patient care and will have the greatest impact on Black, Indigenous, Latino, and other people of color, young people, LGBTQ+ people, and undocumented people….”

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, (D-Ariz.) tweeted, “Today’s decision by the Arizona Supreme Court reinstitutes a total abortion ban from the 1800s. This is the biggest step backward since the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Make no mistake, this is happening because of Donald Trump. We must work to restore abortion rights this November.”

Everything’s Trump’s fault, even the failure of the Arizona legislature to repeal a law nobody wants. (And the eclipse, of course.) The Arizona Supreme Court didn’t reinstate the 1864 law, the reversal of Roe did.

I don’t know how a democracy can function when not only is the public ignorant of its basic principles but its elected officials deliberately misrepresent them. Sir Thomas More clearly explained why it is suicidal for societies to ignore laws when they become inconvenient.

I know, I know…”Who’s Thomas More?”

In the meantime, almost no news source bothered to link to the actual decision, because they’d prefer the public to have to learn about the case through their biased filter. Democracy dies in darkness, you know…and that, for much of our journalistic establishments, is the objective.