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Courtroom Prayer For '[God's] Truth, Not Our Own' Precedes Abortion Ban Hearing, Which... Went As Poorly As You Might Expect

Supreme Court's coordinated attack on rights has led us right here.

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Judge’s gavel and holy bible bookToday, Mississippi’s 2007 trigger law goes into effect, banning all abortion “except in cases where necessary for the preservation of the mother’s life or where the pregnancy was caused by rape.” Which, given that the state’s six-week abortion ban was the impetus for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, is not a particularly surprising result. Devastating? Absolutely. But not a shock.

But abortion advocates made one last play, asking for injunctive relief before the trigger law went into effect due to the irreparable harm the ban would create. The legal argument was based on a Mississippi state case holding there’s a “right to have an abortion” as part of the “right to privacy.” Judge Debbra K. Halford was assigned the case, and earlier this week there was a hearing on the motion.

This is where we go through the looking glass straight into our current hellscape.

As the Mississippi Free Press reports, before the hearing began, a United Methodist Church pastor — at the judge’s request — acted as “special chaplain” and led a prayer. Don’t worry — it gets worse. The prayer the minister made in the courtroom included this: “Lord, we pray for the presence of your holy spirt in this courtroom today. … We seek your truth, not our own. We seek your wisdom, not our own.”

Sure feels like Judge Halford is signaling how she’s going to rule in the case. It’s really an audacious decision to have such a controversial issue not just with any prayer, but with that prayer. Good thing we have an Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Oh. Nevermind.

As you might imagine, Judge Halford rejected the requested injunction.

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And that’s the real nut of the problem, isn’t it. The Supreme Court has launched a multi-front attack on rights with the intent of leading us here. A place where only Christianity receives constitutional protections, and all other rights are eroded in service to a very specific (white Christian nationalist) religious ideology. In the wake of Dobbs, the term theocracy is getting thrown around a lot — and with good reason.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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