{"id":33568,"date":"2022-07-08T08:54:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T08:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=33568"},"modified":"2022-07-08T08:54:24","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T08:54:24","slug":"how-pro-abortion-district-attorneys-aim-to-derail-pro-life-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/08\/how-pro-abortion-district-attorneys-aim-to-derail-pro-life-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"How Pro-Abortion District Attorneys Aim to Derail Pro-Life Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In the wake of the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade and returning the issue of abortion to the American people and their local elected representatives, a gaggle of leftist district attorneys said they won\u2019t enforce laws enacted to protect the unborn. <\/p>\n<p>Some of those rogue district attorneys are from pro-life states and might attempt to stymie efforts by state legislatures to protect life. <\/p>\n<p>Cully Stimson, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, is not surprised, and says that those district attorneys have already refused to enforce other laws, against violence and petty crime, among other things. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)<\/p>\n<p>The tactic of not enforcing some of the laws that their state legislatures pass and their governors sign \u201cis not a new play for them,\u201d says Stimson. \u201cSo, it\u2019s not surprising that they\u2019re virtue signaling and trying to [capitalize] on the anti-Dobbs hysteria on the left and hold themselves out as defenders of freedom and all the rest of it.\u201d  (The Supreme Court\u2019s June 24 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization overturned Roe, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.)<\/p>\n<p>Worse, there\u2019s no way to get the anti-abortion laws enforced if the rogue district attorneys decide they won\u2019t cooperate. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemember, the prosecutor\u2014not the police officer, not the mayor, not the governor\u2014is the gatekeeper to the criminal justice system,\u201d explains Stimson. \u201cSo, police can arrest people for committing crimes that are on the books, but if the DA says, \u2018Sorry, Officer Schmuckatelli, we\u2019re not going to bring that case and file it in court.\u2019 That\u2019s the end of the line.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, there\u2019s a possible solution. As we\u2019ve seen even in liberal San Francisco, which recently recalled its leftist prosecutor, Chesa Boudin, the people can take matters into their own hands and recall district attorneys who won\u2019t do their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFind out from your DA whether they believe in reimagining prosecution and not asking for bail even for repeat criminals, and not fully enforcing the law,\u201d recommends Stimson. \u201cBecause if they are following [leftist billionaire George Soros\u2019] bought-and-paid-for playbook or inspirational playbook, or the playbook from the Fair and Just Prosecution \u2026 then you\u2019re going to know that you\u2019re going to have a crime problem in your city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stimson joins the show to discuss the implications of district attorneys refusing to prosecute abortion-related crimes, and what Americans can do to hold them accountable.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We also cover these stories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces his resignation.<\/li>\n<li>The United Kingdom and United States worked in tandem to capture Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Oman in February, it was revealed Thursday.<\/li>\n<li>After The New York Times labels her a \u201cfar-right Latina,\u201d newly elected Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Texas, fires back. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Listen to the podcast below or read the lightly edited transcript:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/castbox.fm\/app\/castbox\/player\/id3119922?v=8.22.11&amp;autoplay=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Doug Blair: My guest today is Cully Stimson, deputy director at the Heritage Foundation\u2019s Legal Study Center and a senior legal fellow. Cully, welcome to the show.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cully Stimson: <\/strong>Great to be back with you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blair: Of course. In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe, a letter signed by several rogue prosecutors, or these are district attorneys who won\u2019t enforce the law, indicated that these same prosecutors will not enforce laws specifically banning abortions or punishing people who go against pro-life laws in the states. So, first of all, can they legally do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stimson: <\/strong>This tactic of not enforcing the law that their state legislature passes and their governor signs is not a new play for them, so it\u2019s not surprising that they\u2019re virtue signaling and trying to capture on the anti-Dobbs hysteria on the left and hold themselves out as defenders of freedom and all the rest of it. When, in fact, ever since they\u2019ve been elected in their various counties, they\u2019ve refused to prosecute all sorts of laws. So, this is just part and parcel not only of their pro-criminal, anti-victim crusade, but it\u2019s also, I think, a fundraising opportunity for them to get more money from people who, for whatever reason, don\u2019t like the Dobbs decision.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blair: Now, you\u2019re saying this is something that\u2019s kind of par for the course, like we see in San Francisco that they refuse to enforce these laws. Is that something similar? You\u2019re just adding these post -Dobbs laws on top of that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stimson: <\/strong>Right. Well, first off, I mean, the dust hasn\u2019t even settled, Doug, and we don\u2019t know what states, if any, will necessarily criminalize abortion. But to the extent that some states would pass a law to make it a misdemeanor either for a doctor to perform an abortion or a person to seek one in their state, these prosecutors are jumping out ahead of the news cycle, essentially, to say that we will refuse to file cases in those situations. Now, remember, the prosecutor, not the police officer, not the mayor, not the governor, is the gatekeeper to the criminal justice system, as we\u2019ve written about in our rogue prosecutor series. So, police can arrest people for committing crimes that are on the books, but if the DA says, \u201cSorry, Officer Schmuckatelli, we\u2019re not going to bring that case and file it in court.\u201d That\u2019s the end of the line. There\u2019s no appeal for a citizen or an aggrieved party or victim to go around the prosecutor. And so, these prosecutors have already been refusing to prosecute thousands of types of crimes around the country, so this is just another anticipatory prosecutorial nullification, which is what they\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blair: Now, the letter contains several different prosecutors and they come from a wide gamut of states. Some of them are from places like Texas and Mississippi, which already have some pretty strict laws on the books regarding abortion. How does the refusal by these prosecutors to enforce these laws affect the cause of life in those pro-life states?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stimson<\/strong>: Too early to tell. So, we don\u2019t know what, if any, cases could be brought or have tried to be brought and these DAs refuse. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll bang on a gong as soon as they come up with a case that they refuse to try to draw attention to themselves. This is a new breed of prosecutor. These really aren\u2019t prosecutors. These are people who run for the DA, and there\u2019s 2,300 DA offices around the country that people can run for at the local level, whose vision is that the entire criminal justice system is racist. Of course it\u2019s not. But the only way to ameliorate or fix that problem, which they see as a problem, is to \u201cfundamentally reverse engineer and dismantle\u201d the criminal justice system. And that\u2019s a quote from one of their key cheerleaders, Rachel Barkow who was on the US Sentencing Commission who\u2019s written extensively about the rogue prosecutor movement.<\/p>\n<p>So, I suspect that when there are cases that, for example, let\u2019s say in a particular state, a physician or physician\u2019s group decides to perform abortions against the law of the state, and that physician happens to be in a city where there\u2019s a rogue prosecutor, there\u2019ll be an unholy alliance between that physician who\u2019s breaking the law and the prosecutor who refuses to enforce the law. And then they\u2019ll garner media attention for themselves and use it as an opportunity to not only puff themselves up, but also to fundraise for these rogue prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blair: Given that we have seen in other states there are rogue prosecutors already who have refused to enforce the law, and this is an elected position, are there any things that conservative governors or maybe lawmakers in those states can do to force them to enforce the law? Is there an impeachment process?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stimson: <\/strong>Well, what\u2019s interesting is we\u2019ve already seen the liberal residents of San Francisco get fed up with and boot their rogue prosecutor Chesa Boudin just a few weeks ago. Now, this is the son of terrorists, the Weather Underground terrorists who, when his mommy and daddy went to prison, he then gets raised by Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. Talk about going from a radical group of parent to a radical group of parent type folks. He was also the translator for Hugo Chavez before he went off to Yale Law School. And then he was a federal defender for a long time before he was the DA. So, this is not a Republican or Democrat thing. This is not a conservative or liberal thing. This is whether or not you\u2019re going to enforce the law, and you believe in law and order and holding people accountable for crimes, or you don\u2019t. And that\u2019s chaos. Right? That\u2019s an anti-law and order move.<\/p>\n<p>So, whether or not the citizens of LA will successfully recall George Gascon\u2026 They needed 566,000 signatures by yesterday. They turned in 717,000 signatures to the registrar of voters so that registrar can certify that. There\u2019s a different procedure in every state, in every county, so there\u2019s no one way it\u2019s done. Here in Fairfax, Virginia across the river, if you were to recall Steve Descano who\u2019s the little roguey that got a 72% or so of his campaign funds from George Soros directly, he would actually have to have a trial in front of a circuit court judge without a jury to find out whether he abused his office. So, it\u2019s different everywhere around the country.<\/p>\n<p>The key is for people, whether they\u2019re Democrats or Republicans, whatever they are, if they\u2019re concerned about law and order, and it\u2019s a big problem in a lot of cities, find out from your DA whether they believe in reimagining prosecution and not asking for bail even for repeat criminals, and not fully enforcing the law, because if they are following that Soros bought and paid for playbook or inspirational playbook, or the playbook from the Fair and Just Prosecution, which is neither fair nor just, but one of these Soros cutouts, then you\u2019re going to know that you\u2019re going to have a crime problem in your city.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blair: Right. One of the things that struck me as I was reading this letter is one of the prosecutors was Mike Schmidt, which is the rogue district attorney from my hometown of Portland, Oregon. It got me thinking, though, that Oregon is never, at least in the near future, going to ban abortion. It\u2019s a pretty pro-abortion state. As you mentioned, is it more symbolic that they\u2019re doing this in those types of states, or is there any actual possibility that they could affect pro-life states by the fact that they are also not going to prosecute abortions?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stimson: <\/strong>Well, for the Mike Schmitts of the world who\u2019s the prosecutor in Portland\u2026 And Oregon, obviously, as you mentioned, is a lefty state. They\u2019re not going to have a law. And so, it\u2019s just, this is virtue signaling that he\u2019s signing onto a letter like this. Oregon\u2019s probably not going to turn red in the near future, and so Mike Schmitt and the Mike Schmitts on this letter who sit safely in a blue city in a blue state, they\u2019re just virtue signaling and joining the gaggle of other prosecutors who are beating their chest and pretending they\u2019re out there as defenders of freedom and liberty. The irony in their letter is that\u2026 It\u2019s available on the Fair and Just Prosecution website or some of these other places. They say, \u201cAs elected prosecutors, when we stand in court, we have the privilege and obligation to represent the people. Criminalizing and prosecuting individuals who seek to provide abortion care makes a mockery of justice. Prosecutors should not be part of that.\u201d Well, you know what\u2019s interesting is the people that they care the most about are criminals.<\/p>\n<p>Why would you allow, why would you publish a list, which is what most of these rogue prosecutors do, of all the crimes you can commit in their city? Possession with intent to distribute any drug, including fentanyl, breaking and entering, vandalism, malicious destruction of property, prostitution, drug offenses, possession of any drug. You see these videos of these thefts going on in San Francisco and all these other cities where people do it brazenly, broad daylight, armfuls of stuff, and walk out. Look, we don\u2019t have a perfect criminal justice system, but we have a criminal justice system that\u2019s spread throughout the 50 states and all the counties out there, and it\u2019s populated by people. And the state legislatures and the governors and the stakeholders in those criminal justice systems do the best they can to better the system year in and year out.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s a compassionate system. It\u2019s a system where, believe it or not, we\u2019ve had falling crime rates for the last 30 years and falling incarceration rates, dramatic falling incarceration rates since 2008, yet in these cities where you have that toxic trio of rogue prosecutors, defund the police, and demoralize the police, crime has been spiking. Why? Because they refuse to enforce the law. And you don\u2019t hold people accountable. And holding people accountable, Doug, does not mean sending them to jail. Most misdemeanants who get convicted don\u2019t go to jail. They don\u2019t see a day in jail. But you hold them accountable to help them get back on the right path, which is what we want all citizens to be on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blair: Specifically speaking about abortion, though, it does seem like there will be a negative impact on the culture of life and the ability to protect life in states that have had their legislatures determined that they want to pass pro-life laws, but have rogue prosecutors normally, it seems like, in big cities who will just refuse to do that. So, I guess, again, my question here is what is the implication going to be if these prosecutors who refuse to enforce the laws anyway are now sticking another obstacle in us being able to protect life?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stimson: <\/strong>So, in addition to the potential to recall that rogue prosecutor, depending on the state law or the county recall mechanism, there are some mechanisms in states that allow the state attorney general to reach in around the elected county DA to enforce the law. Now, whether on a state by state basis there\u2019ll be the availability of that reach around by state AGs to take a case away from the rogue prosecutor, that\u2019s going to be determined on a state by state basis.<\/p>\n<p>So, for example, in a slightly related context, in Virginia, you have these protests, which you\u2019ve been doing an outstanding job covering in front of justices\u2019 homes, not only in Virginia, but Maryland too, as you know, and in Virginia, Steve Descano refuses to enforce the state law. There\u2019s an open discussion about whether Jason Miyares, the AG in the state of Virginia, can reach around Descano and enforce state law. They\u2019ve put Steve Descano on notice. He refuses to enforce the law. So, we\u2019ll see whether the state AG, who\u2019s a good guy, can do that. And we\u2019ll see in these other states where the state legislature, the people who should be deciding this, decide to criminalize the facilitation of abortions, and you have a rogue DA, whether the state AG, or there\u2019s another mechanism to enforce that law.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blair: Now, the public obviously has a view of this. If they elect these certain state legislators, they clearly want them to act in a way that they voted them in for. Are we seeing pushback from the public towards these rogue prosecutors? You mentioned Chesa Boudin, but are we seeing other pushbacks across the country to these rogue prosecutors who aren\u2019t enforcing the will of the people?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stimson: <\/strong>We are, and the irony is that even though Chesa Boudin hilariously blamed his recall on Republicans, that\u2019s 6% of registered voters in San Francisco. Very blue city and state. The pushback and the outcry is coming from citizens of those inner cities, and they\u2019re usually black and brown minorities, especially women. <\/p>\n<p>And so, for example, in LA, for the last year and a half, you\u2019ve had victims rights groups and a group, believe it or not, it exists, parents of murdered children\u2026 You don\u2019t want to be a member of that group. They\u2019ve been very vocal about George Gascon. You hear victims rights groups not as vocal and not as organized in Philadelphia where Larry Krasner is the rogue prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby is fortunate because even though she\u2019s just a horrendous leader and a terrible rogue prosecutor in Baltimore, you don\u2019t have organized victims rights groups in Maryland, but in Chicago, more are starting to speak up about Kim Fox, more starting to speak up in St. Louis about Kim Gardner who\u2019s the rogue DA there.<\/p>\n<p>And so, it\u2019s the left and the minorities who these rogue prosecutors pretend to care the most about who are the most injured by their prosecutorial nullification. And they\u2019re the ones who are funding these recalls and they\u2019re the ones who are the most vocal about these recalls.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blair: As we wrap up, I\u2019m curious, so let\u2019s say we have a situation like a Chesa Boudin where he is just recalled and now you have an opening where somebody who believes that the rule of law should be enforced is able to be inserted, how is it that we solidify these gains and say, \u201cNo, you are not going to be a rogue prosecutor; you\u2019re going to enforce the law\u201d? How do we ensure that that happens?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stimson: <\/strong>Well, I think it goes back to first principles. Candidates who believe in the rule of law and believe in the separation of powers, that DA enforces the law as part of the executive branch, the legislature and the legislature only passes the law, doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a Republican or Democrat who\u2019s running for DA, in these big inner cities, the person who wins the Democratic primary is going to win the seat. But as long as it\u2019s a person who\u2019s actually not going to be as Soros bought and paid for stooge, a rogue prosecutor, but a law and order, fair and compassionate, but law and order prosecutor, that\u2019s how you ameliorate this scourge across the country which, by the way, is failing.<\/p>\n<p>Chesa Boudin lost. George Gascon is probably going to be recalled. Marilyn Mosby\u2019s under federal indictment. Kim Fox in Chicago has more murders in her city on any weekend than there were deaths, combat deaths, at the height of the surge in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, these are combat zones. They\u2019re just putting their head in the sand and pretending it\u2019s not happening in their cities and that it\u2019s not their fault, and of course, it\u2019s entirely their fault.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blair: Okay. Well, that was Cully Stimson, deputy director at the Heritage Foundation\u2019s Legal Study Center and a senior legal fellow. Cully, thank you so much for your time.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stimson: <\/strong>Thank you.<\/p>\n<p><em>Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2022\/07\/08\/how-pro-abortion-district-attorneys-aim-to-derail-pro-life-laws\/mailto:letters@DailySignal.com\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letters@DailySignal.com<\/a>\u00a0and we\u2019ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular \u201cWe Hear You\u201d feature. 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Wade and returning&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learningtheory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33570,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33568\/revisions\/33570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}