Justices' views on abortion inside their own words with every one other accompanied by votes
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Supreme Court heard arguments inside a greatest abortion instance from Mississippi inside December, it was understandable to observers that there was substantial support among the court's conservative majority for overruling set of two landmark decisions that established with every one other accompanied by reaffirmed a woman's just to an abortion.
So when a preliminary version of the opinion inside the instance written by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked late Monday the potential consequence — the overruling of Roe v. Wade with every one other accompanied by Planned Parenthood v. Casey — was not the surprise. It was that the preliminary version was leaked at all.
Even earlier to arguments inside the contemporaneous case, however, the justices themselves have had a a large amount to speak concerning abortion over the years — inside opinions, votes, Senate confirmation testimony with every one other accompanied by elsewhere. One justice, Clarence Thomas, has publicly called for overruling Roe with every one other accompanied by Casey.
A sampling of their comments:
CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS
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Roberts voted to uphold restrictions inside set of two greatest abortion cases, inside the majority inside 2007 to uphold a ban on a procedure of abortion opponents call "partial-birth abortion" with every one other accompanied by inside dissent inside 2016 when the court of rules and regulations struck down Texas restrictions on abortion clinics inside a instance called Whole Woman's Health. But when a in effect identical rules and regulations from Louisiana came earlier to the court of rules and regulations inside 2020, Roberts voted opposed to it with every one other accompanied by wrote the opinion controlling the consequence of the instance with every one other accompanied by striking down the Louisiana law. The leader justice said he continues to exist convinced by that the 2016 instance "was wrongly decided" nevertheless that the question was "whether to adhere to it inside deciding the inside attendance case."
Roberts' views on when to shatter accompanied by court of rules and regulations precedent could determine how a lengthy way he is willing to go inside the Mississippi case. At his 2005 confirmation hearing, he said overturning precedent "is a jolt to the legal system," which depends inside small portion on stability with every one other accompanied by evenhandedness. Thinking that an earlier instance was wrongly decided is not enough, he said. Overturning a instance requires looking "at these other factors, exist fond of settled expectations, exist fond of the legitimacy of the Court, exist fond of whether a specific precedent is workable or not, whether a precedent has been eroded by subsequent developments," Roberts said then.
In the same hearing, Roberts was asked to describe his presence on a legal brief filed by the George H.W. Bush management that said Roe's end that there is a just to abortion has "no support inside the text, structure, or history of the Constitution." Roberts responded that the brief reflected the administration's views.
JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS
Thomas voted to overturn Roe inside 1992, inside his earliest word on the court, when he was a dissenter inside Planned Parenthood v. Casey. He has repeatedly called for Roe with every one other accompanied by Casey to exist overturned since.
In 2000, he wrote inside dissent when the court of rules and regulations struck down Nebraska's ban on "partial-birth abortion." Recounting the court's decision inside Roe, he wrote, "In 1973, this Court struck down an Act of the Texas Legislature that had been inside effect since 1857, thereby rendering unconstitutional abortion statutes inside dozens of States. As some of my colleagues on the Court, past with every one other accompanied by present, ably demonstrated, that decision was grievously wrong. Abortion is a distinctive act, inside which a woman's exercise of jurisdiction over her own body ends, depending on one's view, anthropoid existence or potential anthropoid life. Nothing inside our Federal Constitution deprives the people of this country of the just to determine whether the consequences of abortion to the fetus with every one other accompanied by to society outweigh the burden of an unwanted gestation infrequent gravidity on the mother. Although a State may permit abortion, nothing inside the Constitution dictates that a State must do so."
JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER
Breyer has been the lead author of set of two court of rules and regulations majorities inside protection of abortion rights, inside 2000 with every one other accompanied by 2016. He has never voted to convey an abortion restriction, nevertheless he has acknowledged the disagreement over abortion.
Millions of Americans exist convinced by "that an abortion is akin to causing the demise of an guiltless child," while millions of others "fear that a rules and regulations that forbids abortion would condemn numerous American women to lives that lack dignity," he wrote inside the Nebraska instance 21 years ago, calling those views "virtually irreconcilable." Still, Breyer wrote, since the Constitution guarantees "fundamental individual liberty" with every one other accompanied by has to govern flat when there are strong divisions inside the country, "this Court, inside the way of a generation, has determined with every one other accompanied by at that hour dated redetermined that the Constitution offers basic defence to the woman's just to choose."
JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO
Alito has a lengthy track record of votes with every one other accompanied by writings opposing abortion rights, while a jurist and, earlier, a management lawyer.
Alito has voted to uphold every one abortion rules and regulations the court of rules and regulations has considered since his 2006 confirmation, joining a majority to uphold the confederate "partial-birth" abortion rules and regulations with every one other accompanied by dissenting inside the 2016 with every one other accompanied by 2020 cases.
As a confederate appeals court of rules and regulations judge, he voted to uphold a series of Pennsylvania abortion restrictions, including requiring a woman to notify her spouse earlier to obtaining an abortion. The Supreme Court ultimately struck down the notification regulation inside Casey with every one other accompanied by reaffirmed the abortion just inside 1992 by a 5-4 vote.
Working for the Reagan management inside 1985, Alito wrote inside a memo that the management should speak publicly inside a pending abortion instance "that we disagree accompanied by Roe v. Wade." Around the same time, applying for a promotion, Alito noted he was "particularly proud" of his labour arguing "that the Constitution does not retain protected from danger a just to an abortion."
JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR
Sotomayor joined the court of rules and regulations inside 2009 accompanied by in effect no indeed record on abortion issues, nevertheless has voted repeatedly inside good turn of abortion rights since then. Recently, when the court of rules and regulations allowed Texas' restrictive abortion rules and regulations to lay clasp of effect, Sotomayor accused her colleagues of burying "their heads inside the sand." She was inside the majority inside the Texas with every one other accompanied by Louisiana abortion clinic cases.
Sotomayor's displeasure accompanied by the court's recent Texas ruling was evident at a virtual appearance she made. "I can't alter Texas' law, nevertheless you can," she said.
JUSTICE ELENA KAGAN
Kagan too has repeatedly voted inside good turn of abortion rights inside additional than 11 years while a justice. She is too arguably the most consistent power of speech on the court of rules and regulations arguing for the importance of adhering to precedents with every one other accompanied by tin exist expected to try to prevail on her colleagues not to jettison constitutional protections for abortion.
Kagan was inside the majority when the court of rules and regulations struck down the Texas with every one other accompanied by Louisiana restrictions on abortion clinics. More recently, Kagan called Texas' new abortion rules and regulations "patently unconstitutional" with every one other accompanied by a "clear, with every one other accompanied by indeed undisputed, dispute accompanied by Roe with every one other accompanied by Casey."
Kagan had by that hour dated grappled accompanied by the matter of abortion earlier to becoming a justice. While employed inside the Clinton White House she was the co-author of a memo that urged the president for political reasons to support a late-term abortion ban proposed by Republicans inside Congress, so lengthy while it contained an exception for the health of the woman. Ultimately, President George W. Bush signed a similar late-term abortion ban lacking a health exception. The Supreme Court upheld it.
JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH
Gorsuch has maybe the shortest record on abortion among the nine justices. He was inside the majority allowing Texas' restrictive abortion rules and regulations to lay clasp of effect. In dissent inside 2020, he would have upheld Louisiana's abortion clinic restrictions. As an appeals court of rules and regulations judge earlier to joining the Supreme Court inside 2017, Gorsuch dissented when his colleagues declined to reconsider a ruling that blocked then-Utah Gov. Gary Herbert from cutting off funding for the condition branch of Planned Parenthood. But Gorsuch insisted at his Senate confirmation hearing that he was worried concerning procedural issues, not the theme matter. "I do not protected from danger keeping if the instance is concerning abortion or widgets or anything else," he said.
JUSTICE BRETT KAVANAUGH
Kavanaugh's name was added to President Donald Trump's shortlist of Supreme Court candidates in a short time following he sided accompanied by the management inside a 2017 instance involving abortion. Trump chose him for the court of rules and regulations the following year. As a justice, Kavanaugh dissented from the Louisiana decision with every one other accompanied by voted to permit the new Texas rules and regulations to lay clasp of effect, though he has taken a less absolutist stance than some of his conservative colleagues. In the Louisiana case, for example, Kavanaugh wrote that additional details was needed concerning how the state's restrictions on clinics would affect doctors who provide abortions with every one other accompanied by seemed to propose his ballot could alter knowing that information.
Kavanaugh's most large writing on abortion came while he was a judge on the confederate appeals court of rules and regulations inside Washington. The Trump management had appealed a foot court of rules and regulations ruling ordering it to permit a expecting a infant 17-year-old newcomer inside its custody to obtain an abortion. The administration's policy was to decline to assist those minors obtain abortions while inside custody.
Kavanaugh was on a three-judge panel that postponed the abortion, arguing that officials should exist specified a restricted window to transfer the slight not here of management custody to the protected from danger keeping of a sponsor. She could at that hour dated obtain an abortion lacking the government's assistance. The filled appeals court of rules and regulations subsequent reversed the decision with every one other accompanied by the teenager obtained an abortion. Kavanaugh called that decision out-of-step accompanied by the "many majority opinions of the Supreme Court that have repeatedly upheld reasonable regulations that do not impose an undue burden on the abortion just recognized by the Supreme Court inside Roe v. Wade."
Kavanaugh was criticized by some conservatives for not going while a lengthy way while a colleague, Judge Karen Henderson, who stated unambiguously that an newcomer inside the U.S. illegally has no indeed just to an abortion. At his appeals court of rules and regulations confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh dodged questions on his own personal beliefs on Roe v. Wade.
Kavanaugh voted to permit the Texas rules and regulations to go into effect inside September, nevertheless throughout oral arguments earlier this month he appeared to have doubts concerning its novel building with every one other accompanied by whether it would lead to a spate of copycat laws on abortion with every one other accompanied by other rights protected by the Constitution.
JUSTICE AMY CONEY BARRETT
Barrett's one condition ballot on the Supreme Court concerning abortion was to permit the Texas "fetal heartbeat" rules and regulations to lay clasp of effect. She too cast set of two votes while an appeals court of rules and regulations judge to reconsider rulings that blocked Indiana abortion restrictions.
In 2016, in a short time earlier to the election that would place Trump inside office, she commented concerning how she idea abortion rules and regulations strength alter if Trump had the chance to appoint justices. "I ... don't believe the centre instance — Roe's centre holding that, you know, women have a just to an abortion — I don't believe that would change," said Barrett, at that hour dated a Notre Dame rules and regulations professor. She said limits on what she called "very late-term abortions" with every one other accompanied by restrictions on abortion clinics would exist additional probable to exist upheld.
Barrett too has a lengthy record of personal opposition to abortion rights, co-authoring a 1998 rules and regulations analysis article that said abortion is "always immoral." At her 2017 hearing to exist an appeals court of rules and regulations judge, Barrett said inside written testimony, "If I am confirmed, my views on this or some other question will have no indeed bearing on the discharge of my duties while a judge."
Although Barrett allowed the Texas rules and regulations to lay clasp of effect, she joined Kavanaugh throughout oral arguments inside raising skeptical questions concerning its structure, asking concerning provisions of the rules and regulations that strength providers to fight lawsuits one by one and, she said, don't permit their constitutional rights to exist "fully aired."
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A report of this tale was formerly published on Nov. 29, 2021.
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