Emily Bazelon

This Time, Scalia Doesn’t Want to See Your Papers

Emily Bazelon — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:10:46 +0000

By a surprising 7 to 2 majority, the Supreme Court on Monday struck down a bristly little ballot initiative that Arizona passed in 2004, requiring everyone who registers to vote to prove his or her citizenship. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion, and he had everyone on board besides Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito. Voter ID laws, including this one about voter registration from Arizona, are all about partisan politics. They pit Republicans who say they’re worried about voter fraud against Democrats who want to make it easier, not harder, for people to vote. These state-driven initiatives are especially bad for minority voters, and the young, poor, or disabled—groups that tend to stay off the rolls in larger numbers when there are more hoops to jump through.

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Death Trap

Emily Bazelon — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 09:30:00 +0000

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The “If This Be Treason, Make the Most of It” Gabfest

Emily Bazelon — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:30:09 +0000

Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook. We post to the Facebook page throughout the week, so keep the conversation going by joining us there. Or follow us @SlateGabfest....
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Patently Unfair

Emily Bazelon — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:51:52 +0000

I’m trying to remember if I have ever read a Supreme Court opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas with the pleasure I read the one he wrote this morning. For a unanimous court, Thomas did the wise and sensible thing and said no to gene patenting, when the DNA comes straight from nature. Companies can still patent synthetic DNA, because that requires alteration of the gene. Fine. Synthetic gene patents reward scientists for invention. And Thomas is also careful to limit the scope of the ruling so it’s clear that the court isn’t discouraging scientists from coming up with new methods for manipulating genes, altering them, or applying knowledge to them in new ways. That should calm the fears of the biotech industry—their sky is not falling.

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The Myth That Rape Rarely Causes Pregnancy Comes From Nazi Experiments

Emily Bazelon — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:52:00 +0000

I don’t understand why Republicans continue to offer up headlines like “GOP congressman: Rate of pregnancies from rape is ‘very low.’ ” It is terrible politics for them to focus the public’s attention on their justification for the fact that they don’t support an exception to abortion bans for rape victims. The view doesn’t have anything like majority support, and they come off as heartless, ignorant scolds. If I were an anti-abortion activist, I’d want to muzzle these people. But they are irrepressible. At a congressional hearing Wednesday, Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona, argued against an exception for rape and incest victims from a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. He said, “Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject—because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.” He is of course following in the footsteps of former Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, who said that women can stave off pregnancy after a “legitimate rape.” (He apologized but that didn’t save him from losing his next election.)

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