Back To Kansas

One need not be a Wizard to realize the recent miracle in Kansas, a red conservative state in the middle of the country, recently setting the national tone on the abortion issue by voting 59 to 41 against a measure that would have made abortion illegal in the state.

That state action underscores the intent of the Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs v. Jackson ruling. In overturning Roe v. Wade, the Court held that the U.S. Constitution does not confer any right to an abortion and, by overruling Roe, it was returning the regulation of abortion to the people and their elected representatives, adding Roe had been egregiously wrong and amounted to ”an abuse of legal authority.” 

As such, the court took no position one way or another on the legalities of abortion and simply left such determination to the individual states. 

While there has been justifiable anger and confusion in the aftermath of Dobbs, one might also see it in terms of the Court’s good faith interpretation of the government’s constitutional reach i.e. limiting its reach only to those powers specifically enumerated. It also bears on the notion of federalism, the appropriate sharing of power between the federal and the state levels. 

By leaving the matter of abortion to the states, Dobbs holds that  the voters, not the judiciary, make the laws. As the experience of Kansas has demonstrated, voters can and do take their civil responsibility seriously.

Back to Kansas.

— Sina.