Lawrence Tribe, a Harvard constitutional law professor, accused a conservative majority in the Supreme Court of “misleadingly” using his quotes in his controversial decision Friday to overturn Rowe against Wade.
Conservative associate judge Samuel Alito wrote the opinion of the majority in the Women’s Health Organization Dobbs v. Jackson. The ruling in this case put an end to almost five decades of Supreme Court precedent – it overturned Rowe’s remarkable 1973 ruling and put an end to a woman’s constitutionally protected right to abortion.
“Rowe was extremely wrong from the beginning. His motives were extremely weak and the decision had harmful consequences,” Alito argued in his opinion.
Four of the high court judges agreed with Alito’s opinion, while Chief Justice John Roberts agreed to uphold Dobbs’ 15-week abortion ban, but objected to Rowe’s complete repeal. The three Liberal judges of the Court together issued a dissenting opinion.
Tribe, who was sharply critical of the Supreme Court’s ruling, said the Conservative majority had used his quotes to justify its arguments for Roe’s annulment.
Dobbs’s majority misleadingly quotes me on pages 50 and 54, straining to justify a decision that disagreement rightly calls an exercise in “force, not reason.” Make no mistake. The writings from which the Court chose my quotations were fully supportive of the Roe outcome.
– Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 25, 2022
“The Dobbs majority misleadingly quotes me on pages 50 and 54, straining to justify a decision that disagreement rightly calls an exercise in ‘power, not reason.’ Make no mistake. The writings from which the Court selected my quotations were fully supportive of the Roe outcome, “the constitutional law expert wrote in a Twitter post Friday night.
On page 50, the Conservative majority said, “As Professor Lawrence Tribe wrote,”[c]this is obviously a wrong “definition of a syllogism.” Tribe 4 (quoting Eli 924). The definition of a “viable” fetus is one that is able to survive outside the womb, but why is this the moment when the interest of the state becomes insurmountable? “
Page 54 quotes Tribe again, stating: “Laurence Tribe writes that ‘even if there is a need to divide the pregnancy into several segments with lines that clearly identify the limits of government power,’ balancing interests’ in the form of the Court pursues it fails to justify any of the lines actually drawn. “
Constitutional Law Professor Lawrence Tribe accused the Supreme Court on Friday of misleadingly using his quotes in his majority opinion overturning Rowe v. Wade. Above, abortion rights protesters protested in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on Saturday. ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP via Getty Images
Newsweek turned to the Supreme Court’s press office for comment.
“Three men – Presidents GHW Bush (Judge Thomas), GW Bush (Judges Alito, Roberts), Trump (Judges Gorsuch, Cavanaugh, Alito) – two of whom won with a minority of the people’s vote – did so to tens of millions of women and of the rule of law. That should be repealed, “Tribe wrote in a follow-up Twitter post on Friday night.
Three men – Presidents GHW Bush (Judge Thomas), GW Bush (Judges Alito, Roberts), Trump (Judges Gorsuch, Cavanaugh, Alito) – two of whom won with fewer votes than the people – did so to tens of millions of women and the rule of law. This must be repealed.
– Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 25, 2022
Protests erupted across the country following the controversial decision. Many countries quickly introduced the so-called “trigger laws”, which were in force and ready to take effect when Roe was repealed. Meanwhile, states that have already defended legal abortions have taken steps to facilitate their access to women traveling across the state.
Former President Donald Trump welcomed the decision and took credit, describing the decision as “the greatest VICTORY for LIFE in a generation” in a statement. He said that this was possible “only because I fulfilled everything as I promised, including the nomination and confirmation of three highly respected and strong constitutionalists in the United States Supreme Court.”
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden denied the decision.
“Now that Rowe is gone, let’s be very clear: the health and lives of women in this nation are at stake,” Biden said in a White House address Friday. The president went on to say that the nation’s Supreme Court “has done what it has never done before: it has explicitly taken away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans that has already been recognized.”
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