For the second time in as many days we find the HLA on our radar. I have no interest in this endlessly rehashed debate but it’s Huck’s best chance to outmaneuver Fred and Mitt as the “true” social con so expect to hear plenty more about it as the caucus approaches. To refresh your memory, Thompson — the NRLC endorsee — opposes the HLA on federalist grounds; Mitt is both for it and against it, favoring the federalist approach in the interim until a national supermajority in favor of banning abortion emerges and passes the amendment. Huck’s counterpoint is simple yet compelling, and one I’ve made myself: if you believe abortion is morally unconscionable but also believe the states are the proper venue to handle it, explain the Thirteenth Amendment.

What Huck’s point doesn’t address is why his position is better than Mitt’s. You’re not going to pass an HLA anytime soon, in which case why not limit it where you can by overturning Roe and letting the red states roll it back piecemeal?