Leaders within the anti-abortion movement on Monday denounced the Supreme Court’s decision to rule in favor of protecting abortion rights in the case June Medical Services LLC v. Russo.
The decision, a major win for abortion providers, was made possible by Chief Justice John Roberts joining the liberal wing of the court in his opinion. Robert’s flip, which came only two weeks after he joined the liberal justices in the landmark transgender rights case Bostock v. Clayton County, enraged social conservatives.
Jessica Anderson, executive director at Heritage Action, a sister organization of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that Roberts had “betrayed the rule of law and the dignity of the bench,” especially considering that he held the opposite opinion in a 2016 case.
“This is the latest in a series of judicial power grabs from the Chief Justice and the liberal wing of the court, who have consistently ruled on the basis of progressive politics instead of respecting the law, the will of voters, or the basic dignity of life,” Anderson said. “Justice Roberts, a so-called ‘conservative,’ is clearly no longer running things — it’s now the Kagan Court.”
The “Kagan Court” accusation, a reference to Justice Elena Kagan, the liberal justice appointed by President Barack Obama, is not new: The Wall Street Journal editorial board threw the insult at Roberts after he and Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the liberals in Bostock.
“Bostock is merely the latest evidence that the Roberts Court, even buttressed by two Trump nominees, is in no consistent way ‘conservative,'” the board wrote. “On major cases Justice Kagan swings the biggest constitutional bat.”
Other anti-abortion leaders voiced a similar opinion after June. Activist Abby Johnson tweeted that she wasn’t sure that Roberts could be “any bigger of a disappointment.” Anti-abortion group Live Action President Lila Rose called Roberts’s flip “truly awful.”
Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan taunted Roberts in a tweet, asking, “What’s next, Chief Justice Roberts? Our Second Amendment rights?”
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse was also critical of the decision, saying in a statement that the Supreme Court undermined “its legitimacy as a non-political institution.”
“The problem with today’s decision is absolutely terrible jurisprudence,” Sasse said. “Simply, bad lawyering.”
Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser called the decision a “bitter disappointment” but said that it demonstrated the need for people to vote President Trump in November, noting that both of his appointees, Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent.
“Today’s ruling reinforces just how important Supreme Court judges are to advancing the pro-life cause,” Dannenfelser said in a statement. “It is imperative that we re-elect President Trump and our pro-life majority in the U.S. Senate so we can further restore the judiciary, most especially the Supreme Court.”
