Roe V Wade Will Be Overturned Once Brett Kavanaugh Is On The Supreme Court, Legal Analyst Predicts
Brett Kavanaugh’s impending confirmation to the Supreme Court means that Roe v. Wade will almost certainly be overturned, a CNN legal analyst predicts.
On Friday, the Senate passed a procedural vote to set up the confirmation of Kavanaugh, who weathered sexual assault allegations to move closer to a spot on the Supreme Court. Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst, said in an appearance on CNN that Kavanaugh’s ascension to the highest court in the land will have significant repercussions.
“Roe v. Wade overturned,” Toobin predicted. “What you will see is states ban abortion. Mississippi has talked about it, South Dakota has talked about it. A lot of people say they will limit but are not going to eliminate Roe v. Wade, but if you have a state that outlaws abortion as we are almost certainly going to do in the next few years, the court will have to either have to uphold Roe v. Wade or overturn Roe v. Wade.”
Toobin said there will be at least a dozen states, possibly more, where abortion will become illegal once the landmark case legalizing abortion is overturned.
Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court became something of a certainty after Maine Senator Susan Collins announced that she had planned to vote for him. Collins is a pro-choice Republican and said in a speech on Friday that she believed Kavanaugh would not overturn Roe v. Wade. Collins added that Kavanaugh gave her a personal assurance that Roe v. Wade was considered settled law and would not be on the docket for reversal.
More than $50,000 poured in over the course of Susan Collins' nearly 45-minute speech. https://t.co/3EyArukyyg
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 6, 2018
As the Atlantic noted, that does not appear to be so certain and it’s likely that the case will come before the court sometime in the near future.
“The senator may truly believe that a Justice Kavanaugh would not vote to abridge abortion rights, or she may be covering her bases with her largely pro-choice constituency in Maine,” the report noted. “But her bet on Kavanaugh will almost surely be tested in short order as advocacy groups continue to push abortion-related cases toward the high court.”
Collins has already seen a backlash to her announcement, with activists raising more than $2 million for her 2020 Democratic opponent after she announced her plan to vote for Kavanaugh.
Brett Kavanaugh is expected to be confirmed by the Senate on Saturday. It is not clear if Roe v. Wade will make its way back to the Supreme Court any time in the near future.
