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**JUNE 27, 2022**

Kuttner on TAP

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**** Codifying Sexual Privacy
Rights

It's time for Democrats in Congress to protect past landmark decisions
from the current lunatic Supreme Court-and to force Republicans in
Congress to take awkward votes.

Clarence Thomas's all-too-candid concurring opinion in the **Dobbs**
ruling
overturning

**Roe v. Wade** suggests that the Court should go further and reverse
three landmark decisions on privacy. These were Lawrence v. Texas
, a 2003 ruling by a 6-3 vote
establishing that homosexual acts are not a crime;

**Obergefell v. Hodges** legalizing marriage equality; and even

**Griswold v. Connecticut** legalizing birth control. Thomas wrote, "In
future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due
process precedents, including

**Griswold**,

**Lawrence**, and

**Obergefell**. Because any substantive due process decision is
'demonstrably erroneous' ... we have a duty to 'correct the
error' established in those precedents."

Needless to say, any such rulings, though at the fringes of the Supreme
Court (for now), would be monumentally unpopular with the broad American
public. Acceptance of homosexuality is now the majority view, and so of
course is acceptance of birth control.

When the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in Obergefell v.
Hodges in
2015, some 60 percent of Americans already supported it. According to
the latest Gallup poll
,
a record 70 percent of Americans now support marriage equality,
including 55 percent of Republicans and 84 percent of young adults.
Hardly any Americans think homosexuality should be illegal.

Thomas's idea of reversing Griswold v. Connecticut
is even more bizarre. That 7-2
ruling, way back in 1965, overturned an 1879 Connecticut law banning
birth control devices and any other such bans on contraception.

Though some Americans, notably strict Roman Catholics, oppose birth
control, hardly anyone wants it banned. On the other hand, there are
anti-abortion activists who view some forms of birth control, like IUDs,
as tantamount to abortion.

Thomas has thus given Democrats an invitation, on the proverbial
platter, to codify these rulings in statutory law. It's time for
Democrats to introduce legislation safeguarding marriage equality and
the right to privacy in your own bedroom-and force Republicans to vote
on them.

Some wonder why Democrats didn't do just that to protect

**Roe**, back when they had large working majorities and the White
House, as in Obama's first two years.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

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The Sense of an Ending

On 'Dobbs,' 'Roe,' 'Casey,' and life in a gender hierarchy
state BY FELICIA KORNBLUH

Drug Pricing Reforms Hinge on the Executive Branch

With Congress stuck, the administration holds the key to whether
Americans will see meaningful reductions in prescription drug costs. So
far, though, they've punted. BY DAVID DAYEN

The Nightmare Ouroboros of School Shootings and the Educational Bond
Market

Texas reactionaries use the temptation of school investments to force
banks to keep financing school shootings. BY DAVID I. BACKER

The Federal Reserve Is Hiking Too Fast

Inflation is mostly not caused by spending, and the Fed will have no
help if it causes a recession. BY RYAN COOPER

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