Is the Right to Same-Sex Marriage Next?
nytimes.comWhile the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is already catastrophic in its effects on reproductive rights and the equal treatment of women in this country, it has also led to speculation that the court’s conservative supermajority is just getting started in rolling back fundamental rights.
To be sure, Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion is at pains to say that “nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.” Yet that statement rings false.
Unenumerated rights are those not explicitly set forth in the Constitution but inferred from its text, structure, ethos and history.
The majority opinion, quoting an earlier, contested opinion, states that unenumerated rights will not be recognized unless they are “deeply rooted in this nation’s history and tradition.” The court, however, previously recognized many rights other than abortion that are not so rooted.
