As always, you can find the Dobbs v. Jackson decision here.
Paragraph 2 of 11
Sentence 3 of 3
This sentence has two claims. I feel like I’ve been pretty careless lately and might have missed some nuance in recent sentences, but that’s why this is just a first pass. Anyway, here’s the sentence:
“But that argument flies in the face of the standard we have applied in determining whether an asserted right that is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution is nevertheless protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.”
And here are the claims as I see them:
- “[W]e have applied [a standard] in determining whether an asserted right that is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution is nevertheless protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.”
- Jackson’s argument “flies in the face of [that] standard.”
There are a lot of questions that I’ll need to answer for myself before I can declare this one way or another. Assuming there is a single standard, who is the “we” who determined it? How seriously does this standard need to be taken? How strong is the justification for this standard?
Also: “flies in the face”? How about we drop the figurative language. In what way—literally and concretely—does the Jackson position conflict with the standard in question?
These are undetermined for now:
- “[W]e have applied [a standard] in determining whether an asserted right that is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution is nevertheless protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.”
- Jackson’s argument “flies in the face of [that] standard.”
