Liberal New York Times columnist claims US ‘edging closer’ to another civil war

Charles M. Blow joined Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in invoking former Vice President John C. Calhoun in comparing the sentiment surrounding today’s debate over abortion to the slavery debate

Liberal New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow claimed over the weekend that the U.S. was “edging closer” to another civil war.

In a Saturday op-ed, Blow argued that the ongoing debate over Texas’ recently passed abortion law, and the invoking of former Vice President John C. Calhoun by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, reminded him of the debate over states’ rights and slavery, both of which Calhoun was a proponent, in the decades leading up to the American Civil War.

Read my column, “We’re Edging Closer to Civil War,” and let me know what you think. https://t.co/yzfeQ9XWfQ

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) December 13, 2021

“A key component of women’s rights and body autonomy is being snatched away as we watch,” Blow wrote, referencing the Texas law restricting abortions remaining in place while abortion providers were allowed in a Friday decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to continue challenging it.

Blow specifically pointed to Sotomayor’s dissent against the law, which read, “This is a brazen challenge to our federal structure. It echoes the philosophy of John C. Calhoun, a virulent defender of the slaveholding South who insisted that States had the right to ‘veto’ or ‘nullif[y]’ any federal law with which they disagreed.” – READ MORE