@piezoe
There is "original" jurisdiction and "appellate" jurisdiction with respect to the SC.
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The exception clause you cite only applies to appellate jurisdiction.
When a State is a party, the SC has original jurisdiction.
Therefore, a case brought against a State, cannot be prevented by Congressional legislation.
Short of an amendment, the abortion issue will always be subject to SC review, unless Congress makes the exceptions you speak of AND the abortions are performed by the Federal Government, on Federal property.
Thank you so much. This is a very important observation that you make, so I thank you very much indeed. It is such a pleasure to have knowledgeable correspondents who have their brains in some gear other than neutral. Ocho and I have had a good discussion of this obscure clause on exceptions to the Court's
appellate jurisdiction, and now you have added an important observation related to which parties shall have access to
original jurisdiction in the Court.
I suppose you meant "cases brought by the state" rather than against the state, Because the purpose of Congress cutting off appeals to the Court with regard to a Roe Statute would be to prevent the states from challenging the Statute on constitutional grounds.
If Congress goes ahead and codifies Roe in a Statute, what should we expect. I would guess there will be an an onslaught of suits brought by the red states against the Federal Government claiming the Federal Statute preempts, or otherwise interferes with, State laws on abortion. The only thing that will be worse is if Congress does not codify Roe. If they don't, there is still going to be an onslaught of suits in the other direction. And since the Court bone-headedly did not stay the implementation of these ridiculous, red state abortion laws, there is gone to be chaos and worse in the meantime.
In the early days of the Republic, as you have pointed out, the Supreme Court had original jurisdiction on matters where a State was a party, and I guess they still have it constitutionally. But this does not mean that other courts can't have original jurisdiction as well. (At the moment the constitution was penned none of these federal courts existed.)
The constitution leaves the structure of the Courts below the Supreme Court up to Congress. Through many judiciary acts over the last two centuries we arrived at today's judiciary structure, where suits brought by the States usually follow the regular order and start in the lower court.
These types of suits were rare, if not virtually non-existent, until the Twentieth Century. Prior to the Judiciary Act of 1875, such cases, I suppose, would have been brought in the high Court, consistent with its having original jurisdiction in matters where the State is a party --
Nowadays, however, the lower federal courts hear these cases which work their way up the appeals ladder.
If the Congress were to instruct the High Court that they shall not have appellate jurisdiction over a particular statute, which clearly they can, then I suppose the unanswered question is, what would happen? What would be the response of the District courts, and what would be the response of the Supreme Court? If a State tried to go directly to the Court under the original jurisdiction clause I doubt the Court would hear the case because the only reason for the State to violate the usual order would be to circumvent the intention of Congress, as Congress clearly indicated in the Statute. If, on the other hand, the State followed the regular order and took their suit to the lower court, my guess is that that court would not take the case either, knowing the sentiment of Congress.
The foregoing is obviously pure speculation on my part, and it seems there is no point in further speculation considering the near zero odds of Congress trying to protect a Statute by invoking their power to create an exception to the Court's appellate jurisdiction. Nevertheless I wish Congress would show some balls and make it clear that a Roe Statute protecting a women's right to supremacy over her own body is not to be constitutionally challenged.
What is bound to happen, if Congress does not soon codify Roe v Wade in a Statute, is that a mountain of citizen suits will be brought against these absurd State, anti-abortion laws; suits that challenge their constitutionality and expose their nuttiness. Citizen plaintiffs will win these suits, because these screwball laws are so blatantly unconstitutional as to make one's head spin. In the intervening 24 months or so that it takes these cases to slither their way through the courts, hundreds of unwanted babies will be born to indigent mothers. And sadly, great heart ache and suffering will unnecessarily result. Why oh why, did the Court not see fit to issue a stay until the inevitable onslaught of challenges could be adjudicated?