John Roberts Should Follow The Constitution In Dobbs Decision – The Federalist

A majority of U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) justices allegedly still maintain that the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which federally legalized abortion in the United States, is unconstitutional. According to a Saturday report from The Washington Post, as of last week, the majority of five justices to strikeRoeremains intact, according to three conservatives close to the court.

Published in Politico last week, the leaked February draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito makes clear that Roe must be overruled, with the high court noting how itwas egregiously wrong from the start and that its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.

It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the peoples elected representatives, Alito wrote.

In addition to Alito, the majority is comprised of Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, according to the Politico and Post reports.

Noticeably absent from the majority opinion, however, is Chief Justice John Roberts, who is reportedly set to join the Democrat-appointed justices in opposing the rectification of the high courts previous rulings on abortion.

A person close to the most conservative members of the court said Roberts told his fellow jurists in a private conference in early December that he planned to uphold the state law and write an opinion that leftRoeandCaseyin place for now, The Washington Post report said in reference to the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization case. But the other conservatives were more interested in an opinion that overturned the precedents, the person said.

In the past, Roberts has notably joined the leftist justices of the court in opposing laws that restore legal protections to the unborn. In June 2020, the chief justice was the deciding vote in a case striking down a Louisiana law requiring that individuals who performabortionsat clinics have admitting privileges in a nearby hospital, with the majority arguing that the law place[d] an undue burden on women seeking abortions.

Roberts also joined his fellow constitutionally illiterate colleagues last year in opposing Texas six-week abortion ban, with the chief justice laughably implying that women have a federal right to an abortion under the U.S. Constitution.

The Texas law has had the effect of denying the exercise of what we have held is a right protected under the Federal Constitution, Roberts wrote. The laws clear purpose and actual effect has been to nullify this Courts rulings The nature of the federal right infringed does not matter; it is the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system that is at stake.

As if his faulty jurisprudence on the issue wasnt bad enough, Roberts is also reportedly attempting to prevent the court from overturning Roe, with reports alleging that the chief justice is actively trying to persuade Coney Barrett and Kavanaugh to take a more incremental approach to allowingabortion restrictions.

Such actions are not unheard of for Roberts, who in 2012 attempted to convince Justice Anthony Kennedy to switch his position on the unconstitutionality of Obamacare to obtain the leftist corporate medias approval of Supreme Court jurisprudence. After initially siding with his fellow Republican-appointed justices, Roberts cut a last-minute deal with the leftist justices to preserve the Affordable Care Act by falsely deeming the laws individual mandate as a part of Congresss taxing power.

Roberts pays attention to media coverage. As chief justice, he is keenly aware of his leadership role on the court, and he also is sensitive to how the court is perceived by the public, reported CBS News Jan Crawford in 2012. There were countless news articles in May warning of damage to the court and to Roberts reputation if the court were to strike down the mandate It was around this time that it also became clear to the conservative justices that Roberts was, as one put it, wobbly.'

Whether its the Obamacare decision or Dobbs, Roberts overtly political actions arent preserving the image of the court in the eyes of the American people; theyre destroying it. The primary responsibility of a judge is not to center judicial decisions on either the prejudices of the leftist press or the whims of the American public, whose opinions fluctuate on a regular basis, but to ignore such political noise and interpret the Constitution as written. Anything short of this is merely political gamesmanship.

Roberts bid to play politician is not only professionally grotesque, but its no different than what past justices have done in some of the most highly contentious SCOTUS cases in U.S. history. Just as the justices ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson and Dred Scott v. Sanford allowed their personal views to obstruct proper jurisprudence and adherence to the Constitution, Roberts prioritization of his public image over his role as a judge is no different.

Shawn Fleetwood is an intern at The Federalist and a senior at the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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John Roberts Should Follow The Constitution In Dobbs Decision - The Federalist