Supreme Court poised to strike down Roe decision?
May 03, 2022
The US Supreme Court will soon overturn the controversial Roe v. Wade decision, allowing individual states to regulate abortion, according to a blockbuster report on the Politico site.
Although the Court’s decision in the crucial Dobbs case has not been released—and is not anticipated until June—Politico obtained a copy of a draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, which reportedly had won the concurrence of a majority of the justices.
Such a leak of a Supreme Court decision is unprecedented, and points to a serious breach of confidentiality. Politico did not identify the source of the leaked draft, but reported that a “person familiar with the court’s deliberations” had said that a majority of justices (Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett as well as Alito) supported it.
Seasoned observers of the Court did not doubt the authenticity of the 98-page draft opinion, which was posted in full by Politico. But the premature release of the draft—which was apparently circulated among the justices in February, and could be amended prior to the official ruling—will inevitably add new fuel to the already heated public debate on the abortion issue.
The Alito draft argues that the Roe decision—and the subsequent Casey ruling, which upheld Roe—were based on “exceptionally weak” judicial reasoning, and that the Court’s error had produced “damaging consequences” for American society.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” the opinion states boldly. Listing other crucial cases in which the Supreme Court reversed earlier precedents that were found to be improper, the opinion states: “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
If the Politico report is accurate and Dobbs ruling is substantially the same as the draft opinion by Justice Alito, the individual states would again be free to craft their own laws regarding abortion. In the Roe decision, the Court had essentially stripped the states of that authority.
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Further information:
- EXCLUSIVE Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows (Politico)
- Full draft of Alito opinion (Politico)
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Posted by: loumiamo4057 -
May. 06, 2022 4:57 AM ET USA
Because of the deplorable state of politics in the United States for the past 40 years or so, many Catholic apologists have often said it didn't matter who the president was. If Roe is overturned, as appears likely, I pray that all Catholics will take this lesson to heart and never despair again at election time. It does matter who our president is and there will be no better proof than the upcoming decision.
