It was a hundred and sixty years ago, but there are still reminders of 1864 if you look for them. That was the year Nevada was admitted as the 36th US State (where it took officials another 139 years to hone the slogan What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas). In what could be the first known ear worm, the song Beautiful Dreamer was posthumously released. George Perkins Marsh published a book called Man and Nature: Physical geography as modified by human action, becoming “one of the first works to document the effects of human action on the environment and it helped to launch the modern conservation movement.” (Yes, we’ve been ignoring the problem for that long.) And Congress passed the Coinage Act, mandating that the inscription “In God We Trust” be placed on all United States currency. That connection between god and government has been driving policies and court decisions ever since. Which brings us to our latest reminder of 1864; the just issued Arizona abortion ban. Judge William Thompson Howell, appointed by Lincoln, “was tasked with ensuring that the new laws that would govern Arizona — which was previously part of New Mexico — would fully abolish slavery. But tucked into the 500-page document known as the Howell Code was another provision: a ban on all abortions except to save a woman’s life, under penalty of prison time for doctors who performed the procedure. Arizona’s Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld that 1864 law, ruling on a request from the state’s former attorney general to restore it in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — a request that had set off a legal battle with Planned Parenthood. The justices’ 4-2 decision paves the way for most abortions to be banned in the state, making Arizona the 17th state to virtually outlaw abortion.” WaPo (Gift Article): How an 1864 law set the stage for Arizona court’s abortion ruling. In 1864, the United States was also in the midst of the Civil War. Sometimes it feels like it still hasn’t ended.

+ “The next time someone tells you they really worry about abortion rights, but that President Biden is just too old, please gently remind them that Joe Biden is not, in fact 160. That is the age of the law that will soon be sending abortion providers to prison in Arizona if they attempt to assist a victim of rape or incest.” Slate: Arizona’s Zombie Abortion Ban Is Back. It’s back on the books and it will be on the ballot on November, both in Arizona (where Kari Lake, the once-proponent of this law is now criticizing it) and across the nation (where Trump is feverishly trying to distance himself from the chain of events he’s repeatedly boasted of setting off).