Analysis: Trump's Supreme Court Picks Poised to Deliver on Abortion
The month before being elected president in 2016, Donald Trump promised during a debate with his opponent Hillary Clinton to name justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
His three appointees - Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett - may be on the verge of turning that pledge into a reality, based on their remarks during arguments over the legality of a restrictive Mississippi abortion law.
"Trump is very effective, as we saw at the Supreme Court," Mike Davis, who leads the Article III Project legal group that backed the Republican former president's judicial appointees during his time in office, said, referring to Wednesday's arguments. "He delivered, as he promised he would."
Wednesday's arguments marked the first time that the current court has heard a case in which overturning Roe was explicitly on the table. Trump's appointees - Gorsuch in 2017, Kavanaugh in 2018 and Barrett in 2020 - may prove instrumental in how far the court may go in rolling back abortion rights. All six conservative justices indicated a willingness to dramatically curtail abortion rights and perhaps outright overturn Roe.
Then-candidate Trump said in the October 2016 debate with Democrat Clinton of overturning Roe: "Well, if we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that ... will happen automatically in my opinion because I am putting pro-life justices on the court."
Barrett's appointment in particular buoyed religious conservatives and anti-abortion activists, cementing the court's 6-3 conservative super-majority. Barrett, a devout Catholic and former legal scholar, previously had signaled support for overturning Roe in the past.
Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett voiced doubts during the argument either about Roe's legal underpinnings or the need to adhere to it as a decades-old major decision, a legal principle called stare decisis. Supporters of the principle have said it protects the court's credibility and legitimacy by avoiding politicization and keeping the law steady and evenhanded.
Gorsuch highlighted what abortion opponents consider a weakness in the argument to keep Roe: it has already been changed and limited by a 1992 ruling called Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey that reaffirmed the right to abortion, and the test for what restrictions states may enact has "evolved over time, too."
The month before being elected president in 2016, Donald Trump promised during a debate with his opponent Hillary Clinton to name justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.His three appointees -...
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