The judicial landscape of our time is witnessing a troubling development, as per Elie Mystal, The Nation’s justice correspondent. His recent assessment, centered around the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision about in-vitro fertilization (IVF), declares a shift towards a religious imposition on the legal framework. The judiciary, in his view, has become more of a pulpit for religious ideologies rather than a pillar of law and justice.
Mystal compares the current situation to the advent of a new Dark Age, offering a bleak picture where facts, education, and science take a backseat and religious myths get precedence. His concern stems from the biblical narratives that underpin the anti-abortion arguments applauding the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling, which recognizes embryos as children. He asserts such trends are paving the way for a quasi-theocracy.
Mystical notes that the U.S. Supreme Court is also unlikely to intervene in the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision, given that the anti-abortion conservatives who dominate the SC would have to criticize their own stance against abortion. To interfere with Alabama’s judgement would mean acknowledging that their argument is mostly rooted in Christian theology, and not solely in constitutionally grounded jurisprudence. Mystal contends that conservative Supreme Court justices won’t let the Constitution obstruct their use of religious narratives to curtail women’s reproductive rights.
Mystal perceives the Alabama ruling and similar judgements as a deliberate invasion of the judiciary by religious elements and warns of the potential consequences for this gripping trend. The first step towards the remedy, he believes, is to correctly recognize and label this troubling phenomenon.
Read Elie Mystal’s full commentary.
Learn more about the ongoing changes in the judiciary landscape.