It was my first year of law school in early January of 1973 when the SCOTUS handed down its Roe and Doe Opinions effectively recognizing (or creating?) a constitutional right to abortion. Only Associate Justices William Rehnquist (a Nixon appointee) and “Whizzer” White (a Kennedy appointee) dissented. I made note of many within the law school and from the real world who took great exception to what their Supreme court had done. At that time and for a decade or two thereafter my interest in SCOTUS decisions was mostly academic. It was not for me to sit in moral judgment of our highest judges. On the other hand were the many venting moral indignation against the SCOTUS.
The issue became so politicized that it was a plank in the Trump campaign platform in his successful 2016 run for the presidency. To win the nomination of President Trump a prospect for a SCOTUS vacancy had to be a “pro-life” jurist. With Trump’s addition of three “pro-life” justices to the Court, it now appears that we are headed for a Roe revocation.
The SCOTUS would have preferred (I’m sure) to hand down the Roe revocation in late June with all the justices en route to their recess refuges. Instead a “leak” revealed a “draft” opinion for the revocation. Now the justices will have to complete “October term” with the visible and audible scorn of protest.
The biggest unintended consequence of the Roe revocation will be the loss to the GOP of all or nearly all of its anticipated House and Senate gains in the midterm general election of November 2022. Remember that you read it here in the CLB.
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