White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the Supreme Court‘s decision overturning Roe v. Wade an “unconstitutional action” by the justices.
“From day one, when the Supreme Court made this extreme decision to take away a constitutional right, it was an unconstitutional action by them,” Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday of the high court’s decision allowing states to make laws severely limiting or restricting abortion access.
BIDEN SIGNING EXECUTIVE ORDER PROTECTING OUT-OF-STATE TRAVEL FOR ABORTIONS
The press secretary added that Roe was a “right that was around for almost 50 years” and a “right that women had to make a decision on their bodies and how they want to start their families.”
Jean-Pierre says it was “unconstitutional” for SCOTUS to overturn Roe. pic.twitter.com/zQyzdZxRh8
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 3, 2022
Unlike lower federal courts, the Supreme Court has a unique power of “judicial review” over constitutional interpretation.
The court has the final say on whether a right is protected by the Constitution and whether a law is unconstitutional.
Jean-Pierre’s statement came on the same day President Joe Biden said he would sign an executive order to protect abortion rights following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling on June 24.
And Biden, on the day the high court decision came down, described the opinion in Dobbs that undid 49 years of precedent under Roe as taking “away a constitutional right from the American people that it had already recognized.”
On Tuesday, Biden’s Justice Department announced its first lawsuit related to abortion rights since the June high court opinion, filing a suit against Idaho over the state’s law banning abortion after six weeks.
Since the landmark Dobbs opinion, near-total abortion bans have been enacted in at least seven states, and a total of 13 states have abortion laws in place that are designed to be “triggered” and take effect automatically or by quick state action in the event that Roe is overturned.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday responded to a reporter who asked what the point of the Dobbs ruling was if the DOJ plans to “go around” the recent decision that allowed states to impose laws severely restricting abortion access.
“This is not in any way going around the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said that each state can make its own decisions with respect to abortion, but so, too, can the federal government,” Garland said.
