Politico: “The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.
The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision — Planned Parenthood v. Casey — that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.” “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.””
NY Times: “In December, the Supreme Court heard arguments on a Mississippi law that is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, setting the stage for what could be the most consequential abortion rights ruling in decades.
Though the court has yet to reach a final decision, a report published Monday by Politico said a majority of the justices in February privately voted to strike down the landmark case. The report cited a leaked draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. (Drafts of opinions often change by the time the decision from the court is announced.)
The addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the court in 2020 has strengthened the court’s conservative majority and energized the anti-abortion movement, which has long sought to overturn Roe, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion and barred states from banning the procedure before fetal viability.
Here’s a guide to understanding what is in the law and what is at stake in the case…”