Kansas vote could allow ban, but abortion foes mum on plans
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Republicans have spent more than three decades making it as hard as possible to get an abortion in Kansas, and now that their chance to ban the procedure is in sight, they’re reluctant to tell voters whether that's their goal. In the first statewide abortion referendum since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe vs. Wade, Kansas voters will decide Aug. 2 on a proposed change to the state constitution that would clear the way for its Republican-controlled Legislature to more strictly regulate or ban abortion.
© Drew Angerer/Getty Images Chief Justice John Roberts. Drew Angerer/Getty Images - In late June, the Supreme Court struck down the landmark 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade.
- SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts privately tried to sway other justices ahead of the ruling, CNN reported.
- His persuasive efforts were thwarted in part by the unprecedented draft opinion leak, according to CNN.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts quietly tried to sway other justices to protect abortion rights, only for his efforts to be foiled by the unprecedented draft opinion leak in May, CNN reported Tuesday.
Multiple sources familiar with Roberts' conversations told CNN that the chief justice directed his efforts towards conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh — and to a lesser extent, Justice Amy Coney Barrett — in a failed bid to turn away from the draft opinion that was leaked in May.
Supreme Court leak probe: So many questions, so few answers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than 24 hours after the unprecedented leak of the draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an investigation into the “egregious breach. " Since then? Silence. The Supreme Court won't say whether it's still investigating. The court also won't say whether the leaker has been identified or whether anyone has been disciplined. Or whether an outside law firm or the FBI has been called in. OrSince then? Silence.
The Politico report on the leaked opinion shook the nation, as well as threw a wrench in Roberts' plans to save reproductive rights, lifting the veil on what was typically a private deliberation and sparking a public national outcry.
According to the CNN report, the justices on the nation's highest court were aware of the upcoming Politico report on the draft opinion at the end of April — a week before it was released — and watched in anxious anticipation of the report in the days leading up to its publication the evening of May 2.
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Here's what each Supreme Court justice said about Roe v. Wade before they were confirmed
- The Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on Friday.
- The opinion was supported by five of the conservative judges on the court.
- Here's what every judge said about Roe v. Wade during their confirmation hearings.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a 5-4 vote on Friday.
Indiana abortion debate draws protest crowds, vice president
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Thousands of people arguing the abortion issue surrounded the Indiana Statehouse and filled its corridors Monday as state lawmakers began consideration of a Republican proposal to ban nearly all abortions in the state and Vice President Kamala Harris denounced the effort during a meeting with Democratic legislators. Harris said during a trip to Indianapolis that the abortion ban proposal reflects a health care crisis in the country. Despite the bill’s abortion ban language, anti-abortion activists lined up before a legislative committee to argue that the bill wasn’t strict enough and lacked enforcement teeth.
The opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito and supported by conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, three of whom were appointed by former President Donal Trump.
"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," Alito wrote in the opinion. "Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division."
The justices' previous statements on Roe v. Wade have come into sharp focus after the landmark reversal. Senators Susan Collins and Joe Manchin said they were misled by Kavanaugh and Gorsuch.
Here's what each justice said at the time of their nomination.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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Brett Kavanaugh
Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh was nominated by GOP President Donald Trump and took his seat on October 6, 2018.
The Supreme Court will likely enter new territory on abortion rights as thorny questions over rape, interstate travel, and data privacy roil the country
"There are major, important questions yet to be addressed," one legal expert said. "The court still has a lot of work to do in this area."Roe v. Wade, which established a federal right to abortion nearly 50 years ago, was an "abuse of judicial authority" that "sparked a national controversy," Justice Samuel Alito, the author of the monumental June 24 ruling, wrote in the majority opinion.
During his confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh said the decision was an "important precedent" that has been "reaffirmed many times."
Kavanaugh has also said the ruling was "settled law," but signaled he'd be open to overturning settled law, the Washington Post reported.
GOP Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin accused Kavanaugh of misleading them during his hearing.
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Neil Gorsuch
Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch was nominated by GOP President Donald Trump and took his seat on April 10, 2017.
Gorsuch, during his confirmation hearing, said Roe v Wade was a precedent that was reaffirmed in subsequent cases.
"So a good judge will consider it as precedent of the US Supreme Court worthy as treatment of precedent like any other," Gorsuch said.
He stopped short of saying how he'd rule on abortion if a case was presented in front of him.
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Amy Coney Barrett
Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett was nominated by GOP President Donald Trump and took her seat on October 27, 2020.
6 Democrats introduce longshot bill to put term limits on Supreme Court, citing a post-Roe 'legitimacy crisis'
The group of lawmakers wants to see new justices join the court every two years, forcing older justices aside in a radical overhaul of the top court.The opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito and supported by conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, three of whom were appointed by former President Donal Trump.
During her confirmation hearing, she said she'd follow the rules of precedent on issues tied to Roe v Wade.
"What I will commit is that I will obey all the rules of stare decisis, that if a question comes up before me about whether Casey or any other case should be overruled, that I will follow the law of stare decisis, applying it as the court is articulating it, applying all the factors, reliance, workability, being undermined by later facts in law, just all the standard factors," she said, according to The New York Times.
At the time, Barrett sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee revealing that she had signed off on a 2006 anti-abortion ad.
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John Roberts
Chief Justice John Roberts was nominated to the Supreme Court by GOP President George W. Bush and was appointed on September 29, 2005.
During his confirmation hearing, Roberts said the 1973 landmark decision was "settled as a precedent of the court."
"I do think that it is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent. Precedent plays an important role in promoting stability and even-handedness," he told the Senate at the time.
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Samuel Alito
Associate Justice Samuel Alito was nominated by GOP President George W. Bush and took his seat January 31, 2006.
Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan waves off support from AOC in his Ohio Senate bid: 'It's not a helpful endorsement here'
"It's not a helpful endorsement here," the congressman told NBC News regarding AOC's involvement in his Senate bid. "Nor did I seek it."However, Ryan, who is locked in a tough Senate race against Republican J.D. Vance in red-trending Ohio, is not thrilled about the show of support that he received from the progressive New York lawmaker.
During his confirmation Alito said Roe V Wade was an "important precedent of the Supreme Court," The Washington Post reported.
However, Alito stopped short of calling the ruling settled law. Alito has previously written a 1985 cover letter where opposed abortion.
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Clarence Thomas
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court by GOP President George H.W. Bush and took his seat on October 23, 1991.
During his confirmation hearing, he refused to state his opinion on abortion and if Roe v Wade was properly decided, saying it would compromise his ability to impartially rule on similar cases.
"I think those of us who have become judges understand that we have to begin to shed the personal opinions that we have. We tend not to express strong opinions so that we are able to, without the burden or without being burdened by those opinions, rule impartially on cases," he said, according to NPR.
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Sonia Sotomayor
Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama and took her seat on August 8, 2009.
During her confirmation hearing, Sotomayor said the ruling was "precedent and settled."
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Stephen Breyer
Associate Justice Stephen Breyer was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton and took his seat August 3, 1994.
During his confirmation hearing, said he believed that the 1973 ruling "is settled law."
AOC chides Alito for 'politicized' comments on global leaders' reactions to overturning Roe
Alito criticized "foreign leaders" for commenting on the court's 5-4 decision to overturn the landmark case Roe v. Wade."Remember: it was Alito’s opinion that leaked," Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet Thursday. "That fact paired with his politicized remarks below should be alarming to anyone.
"Roe v Wade is the law of this country at least for more than 20 years," Breyer said in 1994.
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Elena Kagan
Associate Justice Elena Kagan was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama and took her seat on August 7, 2010.
Kagan also described the landmark decision as settled law.
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Following the draft opinion leak, the Supreme Court voted in late June in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which struck down the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that granted women the constitutional right to an abortion.
Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the opinion of the nation's highest court, declared that Roe was "egregiously wrong from the start" and "the States may regulate abortion" now. In the opinion, Alito maintained that the right to an abortion was a part of the right to privacy — neither of which are included in the Constitution.
With his persuasive efforts thwarted, Roberts ultimately concurred to uphold the court's decision on Dobbs but dissented on overturning Roe, saying that gutting the federal right to an abortion is "a serious jolt to the legal system."
"Both the Court's opinion and the dissent display a relentless freedom from doubt on the legal issue that I cannot share," Roberts said in his opinion.
A representative for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Kansas abortion amendment vote seen as a bellwether for post-Roe era .
Voters in Kansas will weigh in directly on the issue of abortion, deciding whether to amend the state constitution to allow greater restrictions on the procedure. Kansas primary election ballots include a proposal to amend the state constitution to explicitly disavow the right to access abortion. It will be the first popular vote on abortion rights in nearly 50 years. In reversing Roe in June, the Supreme Court ruled that abortion should be left to individual states.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Republicans have spent more than three decades making it as hard as possible to get an abortion in Kansas, and now that their chance to ban the procedure is in sight, they’re reluctant to tell voters whether that's their goal. In the first statewide abortion referendum since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe vs. Wade, Kansas voters will decide Aug. 2 on a proposed change to the state constitution that would clear the way for its Republican-controlled Legislature to more strictly regulate or ban abortion. 
WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than 24 hours after the unprecedented leak of the draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an investigation into the “egregious breach. " Since then? Silence. The Supreme Court won't say whether it's still investigating. The court also won't say whether the leaker has been identified or whether anyone has been disciplined. Or whether an outside law firm or the FBI has been called in. OrSince then? Silence. 
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Thousands of people arguing the abortion issue surrounded the Indiana Statehouse and filled its corridors Monday as state lawmakers began consideration of a Republican proposal to ban nearly all abortions in the state and Vice President Kamala Harris denounced the effort during a meeting with Democratic legislators. Harris said during a trip to Indianapolis that the abortion ban proposal reflects a health care crisis in the country. Despite the bill’s abortion ban language, anti-abortion activists lined up before a legislative committee to argue that the bill wasn’t strict enough and lacked enforcement teeth. 
"There are major, important questions yet to be addressed," one legal expert said. "The court still has a lot of work to do in this area."Roe v. Wade, which established a federal right to abortion nearly 50 years ago, was an "abuse of judicial authority" that "sparked a national controversy," Justice Samuel Alito, the author of the monumental June 24 ruling, wrote in the majority opinion. 
The group of lawmakers wants to see new justices join the court every two years, forcing older justices aside in a radical overhaul of the top court.The opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito and supported by conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, three of whom were appointed by former President Donal Trump. 
"It's not a helpful endorsement here," the congressman told NBC News regarding AOC's involvement in his Senate bid. "Nor did I seek it."However, Ryan, who is locked in a tough Senate race against Republican J.D. Vance in red-trending Ohio, is not thrilled about the show of support that he received from the progressive New York lawmaker. 
Alito criticized "foreign leaders" for commenting on the court's 5-4 decision to overturn the landmark case Roe v. Wade."Remember: it was Alito’s opinion that leaked," Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet Thursday. "That fact paired with his politicized remarks below should be alarming to anyone. 
