A bombshell draft majority opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court was published this week indicating that five Justices were prepared to overturn the court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, which established the legally recognized nationwide right to an abortion. Undoing that decision would leave handling abortion access to state leaders, and in dozens of states, Republicans would no doubt rush to ban abortions, no matter the health consequences. The Lincoln Project joined those speaking out against the draft opinion — the group pledged to fight on.
The Senate should immediately abolish the filibuster and pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, codifying Roe v. Wade as law and protecting the right to an abortion from the stolen Supreme Court majority.
— Ed Markey (@EdMarkey) May 3, 2022
There’s still time for the alignment of the Justices on this issue to shift before the court’s final decision is released in late June. The case that gave rise to this draft opinion deals with a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy; ordinarily, states haven’t been allowed to restrict access to abortion that early. (Florida recently imposed a similar ban, with no exceptions for victims of rape, incest, or human trafficking.) If made official, the draft opinion — or something like it — “will take America back to a dark period when states will have the power to impose the power of the state over even survivors and victims of rape and incest,” The Lincoln Project noted, adding:
‘The Alito decision should be seen in the context of a broad authoritarian movement that has become the majority of the Republican Party. Their goal is to remove individual rights and freedoms that are the cornerstones of a modern civil society. The Trump led autocrats are banning books, attacking LGBTQ Americans, attacking voting rights to make it more difficult for those who are non-white and at the lower economic spectrum to vote. This will not stop unless we stop it. Complacency is the surest path to defeat. The Lincoln Project is joining forces with all Americans to fight the threat of authoritarianism. Modern democracies rarely die today in violent coups. They die at the ballot box and in the courtroom. We will fight for democracy day and night. There are more of us than there are of them. We will win.’
I am asking every member of the Senate right now, what other judicial outrage must we endure from this illegitimate majority before we act?
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) May 3, 2022
The draft opinion was written by George W. Bush appointee Samuel Alito, and it garnered initial support from all three of Trump’s appointees and Clarence Thomas. Chief Justice John Roberts, who confirmed the authenticity of the leaked document, reportedly wasn’t interested in completely undoing the abortion rights established via the court’s Roe decision, leaving him in the apparent minority. There’s no clear indication at this point of who leaked the draft opinion — or even what their political affiliation might be — so Republican leaders like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who rushed to characterize the leak as seemingly “yet another escalation in the radical left’s ongoing campaign to bully and intimidate federal judges and substitute mob rule for the rule of law,” don’t seem to know what they’re talking about. Prominent Republicans have at times opted to complain about the supposed impact of the leak on the integrity of judicial decision-making rather than discuss the substance of the obviously broadly relevant document.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.):
"There is no other recourse. We must abolish the filibuster in order to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, and we must expand the Supreme Court in order to reclaim the stolen seats, and restore balance and the faith of the American people."
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) May 3, 2022
