The Supreme Court has released a number of key rulings over the course of the past few days, and some of Maine’s elected officials have issued responses to a handful of these decisions.
The two press releases published by Gov. Janet Mills (D) concern the Court’s rulings on emergency abortions and the limits of bureaucratic powers.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D) posted a statement on X regarding the Court’s decision on presidential immunity.
Gov. Mills expressed tepid support for the Justice’s decision regarding emergency abortions, but strongly stated her belief that they should have done more.
The Supreme Court’s voted 6-3 to dismiss as “improvidently granted” a case out of Idaho concerning apparent conflicts between state and federal policy regarding the provision of emergency abortions.
The Justices also vacated the stay they issued in January, thus allowing for emergency abortions to be performed in Idaho for a variety of reasons regardless of any state law to the contrary.
Because the case was dismissed, however, the Justices did not offer guidance on the substantive question of whether or not federal law ought to be read as requiring abortions or preempting state law when apparent conflicts arise.
[RELATED: SCOTUS Dismisses Emergency Abortion Case, Lifts Injunction Against Non-Lifesaving Abortions]
“The Supreme Court has provided temporary relief to women in Idaho by allowing abortions in emergency situations – a right that, frankly, should never have been in question,” Mills said.
“But the Court has failed in its obligation to state unequivocally that the right to an abortion in an emergency is guaranteed under Federal law in every single state across America,” she argued. “I want to be clear: the right to reproductive health care should not depend upon where a person lives.”
“The rights of women, regardless of their zip code, are not dispensable,” Mills concluded. “Here in Maine, we will continue to do everything we can to stand up for and defend reproductive rights and freedoms.”
Click Here to Read Gov. Mills’ Full Press Release
Mills also issued a statement regarding the Court’s decision to overturn the Chevron doctrine, a framework that has allowed government agencies to adopt sweeping regulatory powers based on nebulous direction from Congress for four decades.
The Court’s 6-3 opinion overturned a 1984 decision that has given federal agencies significant leeway for forty years to interpret ambiguous statutes guiding their rulemaking largely without interference from the courts.
[RELATED: RIP Chevron (1984-2024): SCOTUS Kills Decision That Gave Unbridled Powers to Unelected Bureaucrats]
“The conservative majority of the Supreme Court – bolstered by former President Trump’s nominees – has again taken an activist position, saying that courts should be allowed to interfere with the judgment of experts and meddle in, if not outright impose their own agendas on, all kinds of public policies,” Mills wrote.
“This decision represents a stark judicial overreach that erodes the ability of the Federal government to protect the health and safety of the American people, the health of our environment, and much more,” she argued.
“At nearly every turn, from striking down Roe v. Wade to today’s decision,” she concluded, “the conservative majority of the Supreme Court is taking extreme positions, overturning decades of precedent and striking down longstanding rights – decisions that have devastating and dangerous consequences for people across Maine and across America.”
Click Here to Read Gov. Mills’ Full Press Release
Rep. Pingree posted a lengthy statement to X in which she explains her strong opposition to the Court’s decision to grant former presidents immunity for any exercise of their “core constitutional powers” and presumptive immunity for any remaining official actions.
The Justices also declared in their ruling that presidents do not enjoy immunity for “unofficial acts.”
With respect to the allegations leveraged against former President Donald Trump (R) specifically in this case, the Court directly declared some of his acts to be immune while remanding the majority of allegations back to the lower courts for further consideration.
“Public trust in the Supreme Court is already at a historic low, and this term has cemented the current Court’s place as one of the most partisan and extreme benches we’ve ever seen,” Pingree said.
Public trust in the Supreme Court is already at a historic low, and this term has cemented the current Court’s place as one of the most partisan and extreme benches we’ve ever seen.
— Congresswoman Chellie Pingree 🇺🇸 (@chelliepingree) July 1, 2024
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“This is the Supreme Court that overturned 50 years of precedent protecting reproductive rights, struck down affirmative action, and stripped significant rulemaking authority from federal agencies to further empower the Judicial Branch,” she continued.
“Now,” Pingree said, “by expanding a President’s immunity from prosecution for so-called ‘official acts’, the Court has undermined the foundation of our Constitution that no man is above the law.”
“As Justice Sotomayor lays out in her powerful dissenting opinion, this decision will have severe long-term consequences and upsets the principles that have existed since our nation’s founding,” she continued.
As Justice Sotomayor lays out in her powerful dissenting opinion, this decision will have severe long-term consequences and upsets the principles that have existed since our nation’s founding. pic.twitter.com/TUi9jG5jyz
— Congresswoman Chellie Pingree 🇺🇸 (@chelliepingree) July 1, 2024
“Mr. Trump’s desperate attempt to cling to power fueled a violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021,” said Pingree. “SCOTUS’s decision today not only opens the door to absolving this treasonous act but gives any future president seemingly unchecked freedom to commit crimes at will for political gain.”
“It’s a sad day for America,” Pingree concluded. “It’s a sad day for democracy.”
It’s a sad day for America.
— Congresswoman Chellie Pingree 🇺🇸 (@chelliepingree) July 1, 2024
It’s a sad day for democracy.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="29094 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=29094">9 Comments
My hats off to Jarrid in the second district. He has seen the BS the White House has been handing us. He is the first of Maine’s Bright Bulbs to see the light. Now he has to send back Sorris money.
The Governor knows the trouth, But still has not moved her lips.
Pingree is just dumb to know much.
King will play stupid and he is calling himself an INDEPENDENT. We all know he is a democrate: He is just never told the truth
“Mr. Trump’s desperate attempt to cling to power fueled a violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021
Ms Pinree the violence was done by some who your comity knowes and will not reveil as they were on your side. You and your party have her blood on your hands.
If you so smart why have you not found the fourth Saco shooter?
Your party can not find either shooter.
Rep. Pingree posted a lengthy statement to X in which she explains her strong opposition..
Then there a few thinks Bidden, Oboma, Bush, and Bill have to answer for, and even FDR
“Here in Maine, we will continue to do everything we can to stand up for and defend reproductive rights and freedoms.” BUT NOT OUR CHILDERN!!!
Mills can’t have it both ways. She praises SCOTUS for the Idaho decision but the Chevron decision is activism.
smh
She claims overreach? The woman who ignored the Constitution and shut down chosen businesses, churches, etc?
Hypocrisy, thy name is Janet Mills.
Interesting how Mills does not say the same about Gun Rights.
Is there any doubt that Mills is an incompetent hypocrite? She is a law school grad, yet blatantly mischaracterizes the Supreme Court decision. She knows better; she just lies.
Her biggest LIE is her continued support of Biden. Any sane person can recognize that politics aside – Biden is incapable of being President and should resign rather than prolong a national security risk.
Watch carefully those who argue otherwise – like Mills.
They could not admit they were catastrophically wrong about Covid and that young people are now dying and becoming disabled at absurdly high levels. It seems they have not learned and will continue to maintain that Joe is “sharp as a tack”.
@new mainer, your take is right on.
But it’s no “mistake ” what any of these leftists do, it’s all money power and control. If Ole Janet didn’t spout all of “joe/obama/marxist b.s. the money would have dried up from the feds, and her socialists ,green scam dreams would have withered away as she will. And, as our state will if they have their way. Our taxes will go up, property and the rest! To pay for the lefts s%it list.
Watch as they turn portland into sanfranscisco!
The bureaucrats panic as they loose their precious “chevron deference ” . HAHA ! they never should have had it in the first place ! It’s not the job of the bloated federal government ,or the 3letter agencies to tell us how to live . The constitution gives WE THE PEOPLE the power to run our government, not the government to run the people.
And how does abortion “reproductive ” ????? Thers nothing reproductive about that, it’s MURDER ! With all the crap on the market to keep people from getting pregnant today, there’s NO EXCUSE . With the exception for rape or incest as far as I’m concerned
Sounds like our democrat leaders of Maine. can’t handle the word NO!! For fifty years with a liberal supreme court you got your way. Times change to bad it took so long. Finally the states have some responsibility.to govern their state and perhaps go to the people and allow them to vote and have some control over basic freedoms. So if you can’t have an abortion in one state make arrangements in another state and go get it done. Personal responsibility would be helpful.