Clarence Thomas wastes literally no time using Roe decision to attack gay rights
In a concurring opinion with the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas said the Court should now reconsider rulings that protect same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships, and contraception.The Court’s decision to overturn Roe in favor of Mississippi in Dobbs v.
Jackson Women’s Health upends nearly 50 years of precedent which allowed abortion until about 24 weeks of pregnancy. It’s expected that abortion will soon be all but outlawed in half the states.After a draft opinion was leaked in May suggesting this outcome, many observers feared the Court could use the same process to target other rights.Related: Roberta Kaplan on the demise of Roe v.
Wade and what’s next for equalityIt took all of minutes after the ruling was announced for those fears to be confirmed.Thomas writes that the Court should reconsider other cases that fall under its previous due process precedents, specifically naming Griswold, Lawrence and Obergefell — cases which established federal protections for contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage, respectively.“For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote.Clarence Thomas, concurring, explicitly calls on the Supreme Court to overrule Griswold (right to contraception), Lawrence (right to same-sex intimacy), and Obergefell (right to same-sex marriage).
