In Casey, the Court reasoned that even a woman’s right to bring her pregnancy to term if that’s her choice would be vulnerable if her right to terminate that pregnancy were no longer deemed to be constitutionally protected. So the Alito position isn’t pro-life. It’s anti-choice.
Right now: Barricades are up around the Supreme Court building, just minutes after reports from Politico were leaked indicating SCOTUS has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. pic.twitter.com/LxR9rbs6TF
The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmarkRoe v. Wadedecision, according to aninitial draft majority opinionwritten by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.
The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision –Planned Parenthood v. Casey– that largely maintained the right. “Roewas egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.
“We hold thatRoeandCaseymust be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.”“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
[...]
No draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case was still pending. The unprecedented revelation is bound to intensify the debate over what was already the most controversial case on the docket this term.
We received a copy of the 98-page draft opinion from a person familiar with the court’s proceedings in the Mississippi case along with other details supporting the authenticity of the document.
POLITICO received a copy of the draft opinion from a person familiar with the court’s proceedings in the Mississippi case along with other details supporting the authenticity of the document. The draft opinion runs 98 pages, including a 31-page appendix of historical state abortion laws. The document is replete with citations to previous court decisions, books and other authorities, and includes 118 footnotes. The appearances and timing of this draft are consistent with court practice.
The disclosure of Alito’s draft majority opinion – a rare breach of Supreme Court secrecy and tradition around its deliberations – comes as all sides in the abortion debate are girding for the ruling. Speculation about the looming decision has been intense since the December oral arguments indicated a majority was inclined to support the Mississippi law.
It’s impossible to overstate the earthquake this will cause inside the Court, in terms of the destruction of trust among the Justices and staff. This leak is the gravest, most unforgivable sin.
Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before a decision is unveiled (expected by late June or early July) https://t.co/nl3JFLx9xg
There are lots of signals the opinion is legit. The length and depth of analysis, would be very hard to fake. It says it is written by Alito and definitely sounds like him. It’s 60+ pages long.
If this is a deep fake, it would require a state actor or someone like that. I can’t imagine that.
It’s possible the Court could pull back from this position, but this looks like they voted that way after the oral argument.
This opinion says states can criminalize abortion, with no rape or incest exception. It is exactly the hardline position I’ve been saying the Court is going to impose for the last 3 years. It will set women back in profound ways. Congress must act ASAP.
This is the equivalent of the pentagon papers leak, but at the Supreme Court. I’m pretty sure there has never ever been such a leak. And certainly not in the years I’ve been following the Supreme Court. END
Sorry one last thing for those wondering about Court procedure: After oral argument the Justices take a tentative vote. This would have happened in December. The senior most justice in the majority gets to assign the opinion. That might have been Roberts, but doubtful since...
Alito wrote this draft.
Now, once the draft is circulated, the justices in dissent will write an opinion. That's presumably happening now. But the tenative vote seems strong, and Chief Justice Roberts is irrelevant if the 4 + Alito hold with their tentative votes.
So there is the possibility an opinion can flip after oral argument and the tentative vote, so it's theoretically powerful the Alito opinion won't be the vote of the Court. But it would require a Justice BESIDES Chief Justice Roberts to flip.
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This is only the first of rolling back human rights in America because RWNJs want their dominionist elite, one-party rule of the nation.
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Since SCOTUS is going to overturn #RoeVWade I think this one from George Carlin is appropriate.
The GOP condones rape and incest (see Mississippi’s no exceptions) because they selected right-wing judges and tolerate congressional sex romps and sex trafficking.
If democrats are having a hard time writing statements on this, go find a GOP statement on so-called “gun bans” and just do a search and replace with “abortion ban” and “Republican”#helpinghttps://t.co/Z1j2dvjuFw
