I have always believed that abortion rights would be the one issue that would eventually tear this country apart. Even more today, I believe it. There is no changing of opinion on this. You are either in favor or you are not. My opinion doesn’t matter for our purposes today.
By now, you probably know what has happened. A leaked draft of an opinion was published by Politico. It was written by Justice Samuel Alito. The headline says: “Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows.”
In it, Justice Alito seems to be saying that Roe v. Wade was abuse of judicial authority and should be overturned. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito writes.
This happened during the court’s consideration of a Mississippi case that would ban abortions after fifteen weeks.
This draft opinion was circulated among Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett. During oral arguments, all voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
If all this is true, a nearly fifty year old law would be overturned. Abortion rights would then be left to the individual states.
To me, there are two important angles to this story. First, Roe v. Wade would be no more. Second, that a draft opinion has been leaked.
That just doesn’t happen. Some legal analysts say this is the greatest breach in the history of the Supreme Court.
Why do it? Who would do it? Speculation is all over the place here.
Could it be a Supreme Court Clerk with a grudge? An agenda?
Was this draft leaked to try and pressure the court to reverse its decision? Is it intended to get lawmakers to pass some kind of abortion legislation? No one knows. Not yet.
This all reminds me of the Pentagon Papers. That history of the Vietnam War that was leaked to the press in 1971. It caused a huge uproar in this country and eventually led to the end of the war.
Interestingly, it was the Supreme Court that decided the Pentagon Papers could be published. Today, it’s the Supreme Court itself that finds itself in the middle of a controversy.
This is a big story. Very big. Roe v. Wade appears to be done. The country continues to be divided on abortion. Perhaps today more than ever.
Protests have already started at the Supreme Court. It’s probably going to play a big role in the mid-term elections.
And this… who leaked that document and why?