Looks like it’s time to void the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision and impeach the six justices who ruled in the majority. Because Rolling Stone has just blown the lid off a major scandal.
Brace yourselves for this one, folks. It’s a doozy:
EXCLUSIVE: Supreme Court justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and the late Antonin Scalia — have prayed together with evangelical leaders whose bosses were bringing cases and arguments before the high court. https://t.co/J4OiaawsX8
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 6, 2022
“The problematic aspect isn’t whether they’re praying, But that several justices seem committed to reading their religion into the Constitution.” https://t.co/cIeZWZjHnK
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 6, 2022
“Praying with a group that filed an amicus brief with a court," Stetson University law professor Louis Virelli says, "is a problem.” https://t.co/Pdy3Ootnz1
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 6, 2022
A right-wing evangelical activist was caught on tape bragging that she prayed with Supreme Court justices. The court’s majority cited a legal brief that her group filed while overturning Roe v. Wade. https://t.co/nygrCAQ7kR
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 6, 2022
“I was sure, while we were doing it, it would be a positive contribution to our public life. It didn’t have the effect I thought it would. In some ways, it set the stage for the reversal of Roe, which I now think of as a social catastrophe.” https://t.co/zfW015Uroe
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 6, 2022
This disclosure was a serious matter on its own terms, but it also suggested a major conflict of interest. Nienaber’s ministry’s umbrella organization, Liberty Counsel, frequently brings lawsuits before the Supreme Court. In fact, the conservative majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which ended nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights, cited an amicus brief authored by Liberty Counsel in its ruling.
In other words: Sitting Supreme Court justices have prayed together with evangelical leaders whose bosses were bringing cases and arguments before the high court.
…
The Supreme Court did not respond to a request for comment. Liberty Counsel’s founder, Mat Staver, strenuously denied that the in-person ministering to justices that Nienaber bragged about exists. “It’s entirely untrue,” Staver tells Rolling Stone. “There is just no way that has happened.” He adds: “She has prayer meetings for them, not with them.” Asked if he had an explanation for Nienaber’s direct comments to the contrary, Staver says, “I don’t.”
But the founder of the ministry, who surrendered its operations to Liberty Counsel in 2018, tells Rolling Stone that he hosted prayer sessions with conservative justices in their chambers from the late-1990s through when he left the group in the mid-2010s. Rob Schenck, who launched the ministry under the name Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital, described how the organization forged ministry relationships with Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and the late Antonin Scalia, saying he would pray with them inside the high court. Nienaber was Schenk’s close associate in that era, and continued with the ministry after it came under the umbrella of Liberty Counsel.
That’s all very interesting. Or it would be if not for the fact that there’s no actual evidence that Justices Alito or Thomas were influenced by Liberty Counsel or any religious entity. The Dobbs ruling held that there’s no constitutional right to abortion, which is just a fact. And there are plenty of atheist and agnostic pro-lifers (not that popular opinion should have any bearing on SCOTUS rulings, of course).
I love that the left thinks this is shockingly controversial. https://t.co/xgKvUwFRxz
— Chad Felix Greene 🇺🇲 (@chadfelixg) July 7, 2022
We get that Rolling Stone hates the Dobbs decision, but, like, come on.
insane violation of longstanding precedent barring justices from, uh, praying? https://t.co/vxm5KDDSf6
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) July 7, 2022
OH MY GOD PEOPLE PRAYED!!!!!($&@!!!!!! https://t.co/6milYmk6N4
— Heather B (@BoulwareH2) July 7, 2022
Prayed?! Impeach them immediately https://t.co/YfPAC30D2f
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) July 7, 2022
If anyone needs to be impeached over this, it’s Rolling Stone. For getting all this so very, very wrong.
sorry, what in this is problematic? https://t.co/NEr0rhyfQw
— Lyman Stone 石來民 🦬🦬🦬 (@lymanstoneky) July 7, 2022
also, er, uh, what? pic.twitter.com/ynEcBNGmfQ
— Lyman Stone 石來民 🦬🦬🦬 (@lymanstoneky) July 7, 2022
i assure you, praying does not cause a person to "assume the mantle of the divine," whatever that means
— Lyman Stone 石來民 🦬🦬🦬 (@lymanstoneky) July 7, 2022
anyways, apparently people are very angry to learn that some justices pray.
— Lyman Stone 石來民 🦬🦬🦬 (@lymanstoneky) July 7, 2022
Great journamalisming as usual, Rolling Stone.
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