Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri threatened on Sunday never to vote for a Supreme Court nominee who has not explicitly denounced the pro-abortion 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade. This could be a very counterproductive threat, especially if he follows through.

Let’s set aside, for now, the apt contention that the judicial ethics are very dicey for any jurist to offer an explicit commentary on a case whose legal progeny continues to flood the courts year after year. Suffice it to say that official ethics rules would certainly be implicated, and litigants would have good cause to think their cases were being prejudged.