Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a statement this past Friday that made it abundantly clear that he, along with his fellow justices on the bench, refused to be “bullied” into the changing of their minds concerning any case at all, let alone this one.
While issuing statements at the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference in Atlanta, Thomas laid out the statements against the backdrop of the recent leaking of an early opinion draft from SCOTUS that seemed to say that the Court is preparing to issue a ruling overturning landmark abortion decisions Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
While making reference to the leak, which instantly sparked an outcry of anger throughout the various Democratic elected officials and sparked the start of quite a few protests from various pro-abortion groups, Thomas highlighted. “We are becoming addicted to wanting particular outcomes, not living with the outcomes we don’t like.”
“We can’t be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want. The events from earlier this week are a symptom of that,” continued the justice.
In the wake of the draft being forced into the public eye, many protesters have chosen to gather and demonstrate just outside of the Supreme Court building and around the homes of the justices themselves.
Additionally, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) — among others — have started to sound calls to attempt to codify Roe and strongarm through legislation that would make abortion a right at the federal level. Any and all attempts to try and do so are most likely just doomed to fail in the current 50/50 Senate as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) come out to state that he would never compromise the filibuster in order to try and secure federal abortion rights.
One Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who has also brought to light her own bill seeking to codify abortion rights while teaming up with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), has also claimed she would never show support for the Democrats’ bill due to it being far “too broad” and refused to allow any exceptions at all for catholic hospitals on the grounds of a religious exemption.
Additionally, many others such as Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) have made the argument that this leaked draft only means that it is high time for Old Uncle Joe to just expand the court. “We must abolish the filibuster, codify Roe v. Wade, and move urgently to expand the Court so that we forever protect the constitutional right to abortion,” he exclaimed, before adding, “Republicans made up their mind a long time ago: they would do whatever it takes to destroy Roe v. Wade. We must expand the Court to protect it.”
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