EXCLUSIVE — National Democrats are portraying House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) as extreme following reports that he expressed openness to revisiting Supreme Court precedents in the wake of its decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Johnson defended Justice Clarence Thomas‘s view, expressed in a concurring opinion to the landmark ruling, that the high court should reconsider other precedents, such as those on same-sex marriage and the use of contraception.
SENATE JUDICIARY REPUBLICANS PRESSURE DEMOCRATS TO TAMP DOWN SUPREME COURT INVESTIGATION
“There’s been some really bad law made,” Johnson told ToddCast, a conservative radio show, last year on the same day the Dobbs decision was delivered. “They’ve made a mess of our jurisprudence in this country for the last several decades. And maybe some of that needs to be cleaned up.”
The comments did not receive attention at the time but have since resurfaced following Johnson’s surprise election as House speaker last month. The Democratic National Committee is now seizing on the remarks, reported by CNN on Tuesday, to claim that Johnson wants to roll back the rights of women.
“MAGA Mike Johnson’s vision for America would mean ripping away freedoms from millions of Americans — Johnson wants to go back in time to an era when women were restricted from using contraception, doctors could be imprisoned for providing abortions, and same-sex marriage was illegal,” spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika told the Washington Examiner.
A spokesperson for Johnson disputed that characterization, saying in a statement that “the Speaker is not aware of anyone who is advocating for overturning the precedents mentioned and views the cases cited as settled law.”
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The report comes after Johnson’s visit to Donald Trump’s estate at Mar-a-Lago on Monday and a week after he endorsed the former president’s reelection bid. Trump’s appointment of conservative justices to the high court cleared the way for Roe to be overturned.
“It’s clear MAGA Mike is taking his marching orders from Donald Trump: The two far-right extremists met last night to discuss their shared agenda,” Chitika said. “Voters have rejected Johnson and Trump’s extreme vision for the country at the ballot box, and it will cost Republicans up and down the ballot in 2024.”
