Judge Posner Ripped Wisconsin DoJ Atty on GOP Anti-abortion Law

Richard A. Posner rips GOP's anti-choice
law, enjoined in Wisconsin in August

Heading into the new year, we can be thankful that the judiciary may become reinvigorated as a Constitutional check on malicious, bigoted underground movements, arising now in the Republican Party in states across the nation

Press reports on the December 3, 2013 oral arguments on Wisconsin GOP's anti-abortion law reveal a hostile Judge Richard Posner immediately interrupting Wisconsin's assistant attorney general Daniel Lennington with long questions that could only be characterized as hostile, cutting and brilliant.

This is the Richard Posner that everyone besides the Tea Party and Scott Walker want—pull up a chair, a hot cup of coffee and listen to Posner and his two colleagues on the panel, David F. Hamilton and Daniel A. Manion.

You can hear attorney Lennington getting hammered (mostly by Posner and Hamilton) at the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Enter 13-2726, for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin v. J.B. Van Hollen.

Wisconsin's anti-abortion law, Act 37, passed with unanimous GOP support and unanimous Democratic opposition, was enjoined in August 2013 by U.S. District Judge William Conley.

No one believes Wisconsin Act 37 is anything but an anti-abortion law intended to create barriers to a woman's choice, even if Scott Walker and the Republican Party pretend otherwise.

Reports Michael Tarm:

At times appearing exasperated, Posner repeatedly interrupted Lennington, asking why lawmakers — if it's true they saw the law as primarily a public health measure and not an anti-abortion bill — focused on abortion clinics and not other outpatient clinics, such as those performing laparoscopic surgeries.

'Why did they start with abortion clinics? Because it begins with the letter 'A'?' Posner asked.

"Wisconsin (is) one of several states where hospital admitting privileges are required for abortion providers," reports the New York Times, all states with strongly anti-choice GOP governors such as Scott Walker.