Rep. Steve King, the prom king of Wingnuttia High School — Michele Bachmann is the queen, of course — went on on David Barton’s radio show and ranted and raved against Griswold v Connecticut, the Supreme Court case that overturned state laws banning contraception:
King: I watched another thing happen that is very troubling to me, and we’ve watched that, I’ll just dial this back and as a constitutional scholar you will be very familiar with Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965. There, the Supreme Court created a right to privacy that didn’t exist in the Constitution and by essentially ruling that contraceptives that were unlawful in Connecticut and Massachusetts, by the way, and a good number of other states, could not be made unlawful by the states.
We’ve come so far from that standpoint that states can’t outlaw contraceptives because of a manufactured, judicial activist right to privacy, and today we see some weeks ago the President of the United States step up to the podium with the great Seal of the United States on it and in a press conference he legislated by press conference. When he did the press conference and said, ‘ok, I’m going to make this accommodation to the Catholic Church and other religious institutions and no longer require you to provide contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-causing drugs, I’m going to require the health insurance companies to do that for free.’ King George would have not had the audacity to do that, Rick.
Green: If that’s not totalitarianism I don’t know what is.
Really? Providing contraception coverage is “totalitarianism” and you can’t imagine anything that would be if that’s not? That speaks volumes, as does King’s desire to let states outlaw contraception and his rejection of the concept of privacy.
26 comments
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Ray Ingles
April 3, 2012 at 11:42 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If the states have the right to ban contraception, why don’t they have the right to legalize same-sex marriage?
unbound
April 3, 2012 at 11:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I guess the 9th amendment is dead now to these folks too? How many amendments are they ignoring at this point?
Randomfactor
April 3, 2012 at 11:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s not contraceptives. They said it’s totalitarian for the state to respect peoples’ privacy, Ed.
I don’t think you grasped the essential kernel of nuttiness inside the miniature braincase.
matty1
April 3, 2012 at 12:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think the ‘thought’ process goes something like this.
1. I have the right to control other peoples genitals
2. Evilmuslimatheistcommiesecularjudicialactivist are stopping me doing that
3. Help, help I’m being repressed*
4. Totalitarian!111eleventy!!
*Dr Freud to the white courtesy phone
eric
April 3, 2012 at 12:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What speaks volumes to me is that the GOP seems to think they will gain more votes by discussing conservative alternatives to current contraception policy, than they will by discussing conservative alternatives to current economic, tax, or foreign policy.
Chiroptera
April 3, 2012 at 12:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Why are they gunning for Griswold already? They haven’t yet finished rolling back Roe v Wade.
Modusoperandi
April 3, 2012 at 12:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Chiroptera, because you always tell James Bond all about The Evil Plan when you think you’ve got him beat.
elpayaso
April 3, 2012 at 12:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
well, there is that part in the Constitution about the pursuit of happiness……not sure what comes closer to that concept than sex…
Ouabache
April 3, 2012 at 12:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You can’t bitch about the Nanny State and then say the right to privacy doesn’t exist.
fifthdentist
April 3, 2012 at 12:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
No right to privacy exists?
Then I’m sure he won’t mind letting us check his hard drive to see what kind of “research” he’s been doing at 3 a.m. while his wife is sleeping.
Jadehawk, cascadeuse féministe
April 3, 2012 at 1:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Overton Window. If attacking Griswold becomes the new “right-wing”, then attacking Roe v Wade will become the new “moderate right”
Michael Heath
April 3, 2012 at 1:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
unbound:
Well, who does defend the 9th who has a bully pulpit? I don’t even see the non-conservatives on the SCOTUS consistently applying the 9th. If this country was actually determined to promote liberty we’d all know far more about the 9th amendment than any other.
The other failure by avoidance is the fact the 10th doesn’t just reference the delegation of some powers to the states, but also explicitly does so within the context of the reserved rights of people in those states.
erichoug
April 3, 2012 at 1:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Do they really thing they can win on this issue? I mean it is one thing to divide and conquer over Roe V Wade as most people have a strong opinion on abortion and conservatives often feel they can garner a lot of moderate voters who would normally not want to think about it but SERIOUSLY!!! Birth control? Something like 99% of women have used one form or another of birth control in their lives. This is one issue that Conservatives are going to wish they hadn’t stirred the pot on.
Modusoperandi
April 3, 2012 at 1:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
On the one hand, government can’t do anything right, can’t be trusted, and government stands in opposition to liberty. On the other hand, vaginas.*
* Wake up, America! Them vaginers need policin’!
juice
April 3, 2012 at 1:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Providing contraception coverage is “totalitarianism”?
No, not outlawing it is. See the difference?
juice
April 3, 2012 at 1:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh and WTF?
The right to privacy means that people can voluntarily ingest a chemical substance and the government can’t stop them?
Damn, the supreme court and the laws are so damned contradictory. They’re all over the place. They aren’t rooted in principle at all. It’s only rooted in whatever people are afraid of that decade.
John Hinkle
April 3, 2012 at 1:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Rep. Steve King: Contraceptive fail.
eric
April 3, 2012 at 2:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
erighoug: Do they really thing they can win on this issue?
Evidently, they think their chances of winning on this issue are better than their chances of winning on economic or foreign policy issues. Which is, frankly, very scary in what it says abouth their economic and foreign policy positions.
cjtotalbro
April 3, 2012 at 2:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Green: If that’s not totalitarianism I don’t know what is.”
The latter part couldnt be more true.
Also, it drives me to near rage when I hear anything Barton related refereed to in scholarly language.
slc1
April 3, 2012 at 2:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
In this regard, is Mr. Brayton going to comment on yesterday’s Supreme Court decision relative to strip searches?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/03/tagblogsfindlawcom2012-decided-idUS135777294320120403
thompjs
April 3, 2012 at 2:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I suppose he wouldn’t mind sharing his bank account number/pin with me.
Plus install web cams in his house so we can see everything he does.
(Warning: might be scary!)
Aquaria
April 3, 2012 at 8:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Feminists have only been saying since the 70s (that I know of) that Griswold is the ultimate goal of the christers.
Of course, we’re just wimmen with lady brains. We can’t know anything.
Aquaria
April 3, 2012 at 8:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Holy crap, slc–that’s terrifying.
:::Amps up search for country to immigrate to:::
stace
April 4, 2012 at 10:09 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yeah, absolutely unbelievable, Stewart had the lawyer on last night who argued that case in the Supreme Court and lost. The Roberts court is rapidly becoming the no. 1 enabler of the police state.
Doubting Thomas
April 4, 2012 at 11:30 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
No privacy? Does that mean he thinks that all the stall doors and walls in the restrooms should be removed? That if I invent an x-ray camera that can see into closed rooms, I can use it to watch him in his bedroom? Not that I’d want to. WTF?
gravityisjustatheory
April 5, 2012 at 11:35 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think he answered his own question there.