The moment many of us have been praying for over the last several decades appears to be at hand. According to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, it appears the Supreme Court has voted to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion on demand legal in all 50 states.
Ruling on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Alito wrote, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.’”
“The right to abortion does not fall within this category,” Alito continued. “Until the latter part of the 20th century, such a right was entirely unknown in American law. Indeed, when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, three-quarters of the States made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy.”
“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” the justice insisted. He quoted Justice Antonin Scalia: “The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations, upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.”
Amen, and God rest the soul of that man.
“We end this opinion where we began,” Alito concluded. “Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives. The judgment in the Fifth Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. [Emphasis added]
It is unusual, and perhaps unprecedented, for the Supreme Court to release an initial draft while the case is still pending.
The fact that this ruling is labeled a “majority opinion” signals that the court has enough votes to strike down both Roe and Casey, however, the document notes that “the opinion is subject to formal revisions before publication in the preliminary print of the United States Reports.”
Politico reports that, according to a person familiar with the case, “four of the other Republican-appointed justices – Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – had voted with Alito in the conference held among the justices after hearing oral arguments in December, and that line-up remains unchanged as of this week.” Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan are still working on their dissents, which will no doubt be as venomous as they are futile. It’s unknown how Chief Justice Roberts plans to vote.
Alito also noted that “At the time of Roe, 30 States still prohibited abortion at all stages. In the years prior to that decision, about a third of the States had liberalized their laws, but Roe abruptly ended the political process. It imposed the same highly restrictive regime on the entire Nation and it effectively struck down the abortion laws of every single state.” He cited Justice Byron White, who at the time Roe was decided called it the “exercise of raw judicial power.”
The Roe decision “sparked a national controversy that has embittered our political culture for a half-century,” Alito added. This ruling removes federal protections for abortion and returns the issue to the states, some of which still have laws on the books banning the gruesome and inhumane procedure.
This is a breaking story. Stay tuned to PJ Media for updates.
SCOTUS Decision Striking Down Roe v. Wade by PJ Media on Scribd
Source: PJ Media
