Ahead of Wednesday’s Senate vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts slammed Republican extremism for leading the country to this moment in which a handful of Supreme Court justices have the power to enact a deeply unpopular policy that would ban abortions. Warren squarely placed the blame on the many mechanisms that emboldened Republicans to attack reproductive rights at the highest level. “We are here because Republican politicians have spent decades plotting for this moment,” Warren explained. “They have cultivated extremist judges. Groups like the Federalist Society have screened possible candidates and drawn up lists of which possible candidates could and could not be counted on. Extremist donors spent billions in dark money so that their preferred ideologues could chip away at people’s fundamental rights and do it from the bench. Republican candidates for office pledged to support justices who would get rid of Roe v. Wade. And finally, when all of that still wasn’t enough, Republicans stole two seats on the Supreme Court.”
Much has been written about how the Federalist Society has helped shaped the Supreme Court. The conservative legal organization founded in the 1980s found a way to infiltrate Ivy league institutions, paving an easy path for privileged Republicans interested in law to serve on courts across the country. As the years have gone by, the Federalist Society has benefitted greatly from donors and continued to expand its reach. Money from disconnected donors is one of the major factors driving this push against reproductive rights, and Warren said this shows that “Republican extremism has been carefully nurtured for years.” It also shows how inequality is at the heart of this issue: “Those with money will always have the option to leave the state or leave the country to travel where abortion is safe and legal,” Warren continued. “No, the people who will pay the biggest price will be the most vulnerable among us.”