Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Thomas Opens Door For Challenges To Contraception, Gay Right Rulings
The Hill: Thomas Calls For Overturning Precedents On Contraceptives, LGBTQ Rights
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday called for overturning the constitutional rights the court had affirmed for access to contraceptives and LGBTQ rights in an opinion concurring with the majority to decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In his separate opinion, Thomas acknowledged that Friday’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization does not directly affect any rights besides abortion. But he argued that the constitution’s Due Process Clause does not secure a right to an abortion or any other substantive rights, and he urged the court to apply that reasoning to other landmark cases. (Neidig, 6/24)
CNBC: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Says Gay Rights, Contraception Rulings Should Be Reconsidered After Roe Is Overturned
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday said that landmark high court rulings that established gay rights and contraception rights should be reconsidered now that the federal right to abortion has been revoked. Thomas wrote that those rulings “were demonstrably erroneous decisions.” The cases he mentioned are Griswold vs. Connecticut, the 1965 ruling in which the Supreme Court said married couples have the right to obtain contraceptives; Lawrence v. Texas, which in 2003 established the right to engage in private sexual acts; and the 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which said there is a right to same-sex marriage. (Mangan, 6/24)
The Guardian: Contraception, Gay Marriage: Clarence Thomas Signals New Targets For Supreme Court
“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion to the ruling on Roe.Griswold v Connecticut established a married couple’s right to use contraception without government interference in 1965. The court ruled in the 2003 case of Lawrence v Texas that states could not criminalize sodomy, and Obergefell v Hodges established the right for same-sex couples to marry in 2015. Thomas’s words confirmed what many progressive lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates have feared for years. The end of Roe marks the beginning, not the end, of judicial overreach by the court’s conservative majority, they say. (Greve, 6/24)
Politico: Justice Thomas: SCOTUS ‘Should Reconsider’ Contraception, Same-Sex Marriage Rulings
The court’s liberal wing — Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — echoed those concerns in a dissenting opinion released on Friday, writing that “no one should be confident that this majority is done with its work. ”The constitutional right to abortion “does not stand alone,” the three justices wrote. “To the contrary, the Court has linked it for decades to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation.” (Forgey and Gerstein, 6/24)
AP: Biden Vows Abortion Fight, Assails 'Extreme' Court Ruling
President Joe Biden said Friday he would try to preserve access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and he called on Americans to elect more Democrats who would safeguard rights upended by the court’s decision. “This is not over,” he declared. “Let’s be very clear, the health and life of women across this nation are now at risk,” he said from the White House on what he called “a sad day for the court and the country.” Biden added that “the court has done what it’s never done before — expressly taking away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans.” (Megerian, Miller and Hussein, 6/24)
