Supreme Court's 5 to 4 decision overturning abortion rights as established by Roe v. Wade on Friday. The conservative justice, who was appointed by former Republican President George H.W.
Bush, took aim at the Court's 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas and its 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.Lawrence established that criminal penalties for sodomy or private sexual acts between consenting adults are unconstitutional.
That decision came down in a 6 to 3 ruling. Obergefell legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in a 5 to 4 decision. Thomas, who joined the court in 1991, dissented in both the 2003 and 2015 Supreme Court decisions.In his Friday concurring opinion with the majority decision to overturn abortion rights, Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court "should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell." The justice contended that those precedents were "demonstrably erroneous."Griswold v.
Connecticut established that married couples have a right to purchase and use contraception without government interference.