Roe v Wade Argued Before Supreme Court
"One by one, the Republican-appointed justices came before the Senate and promised they’d respect precedent," says Sen Elizabeth Warren
The US Supreme Court's oral arguments Wednesday in a case which leaves Roe v Wade and national abortion rights in the balance have simultaneously fired up Democrats and other supporters of abortion rights while also leaving a sense of resignation that this current, supermajority right-wing court is ready to do away with a guarantee to abortion access altogether.
Specifically, the high court was hearing oral arguments on Mississippi's abortion ban, which — like others across red states nationwide — were crafted largely just to provoke such a challenge to Roe, which has been the law of the land guaranteeing legal access to abortion for nearly half a century.
Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) noted the pattern, in recent years, whenever a nominee to the Supreme Court from a Republican president would come before the Senate, they would inevitably cite respect for “precedent” in order to win necessary support for confirmation.
“One by one, the Republican-appointed justices came before the Senate and promised they’d respect precedent. They’d respect settled law. Well, Roe v. Wade has been law for nearly 50 years. So let’s see that respect. But we can’t wait—we must #EndTheFilibuster so we can codify Roe,” she tweeted.
Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation, highlighted one moment in the day's proceedings which stuck out for him.
“Clarence Thomas asks abortion providers if a woman can be punished for taking cocaine pre-viability. I’m not making that up. Thomas is pretending to not know if drug use could still be regulated,” he tweeted, referring to the longest serving justice and one of the most predictably conservative.
And it wasn't lost on MSNBC host Joy Reid that two of the justices considering the case — Brett Kavanaugh and the aforementioned Thomas — both have had credible, significant threats of sexual wrongdoing leveled against them.
“Was it just me who felt incredibly uncomfortable listening to 2 men on SCOTUS who were credibly accused of violating the personal, physical sanctity of women, whether via alleged sexual harassment or alleged assault, getting to judge whether women can control our own bodies?” she wrote.
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