Roberts was the deciding vote in upholding the Affordable Care Act, and he reportedly switched positions just days before the decision was announced, infuriating his fellow conservatives. According to “an attorney close to several conservative justices,” the resentment lingers: “There is a price to be paid for what he did. Everybody remembers it.”
Christina Reynolds, VP of Communications at EMILY's List, talks about spending $150 million to center abortion rights in this November’s elections on Daily Kos’ The Brief podcast
Conservative law professor Jonathan Adler also notes that ongoing resentment, while suggesting that the latest leak to Politico “leaves open the possibility that especially after the leak, draft opinions are being held more closely. So stuff could be happening behind the scenes,” and noting that in some major past cases—including the Affordable Care Act one—“the ultimate coalitions were forged privately, and surprised some of the other justices.”
If a decision about how dramatically to overturn 50 years of abortion rights in 2022 is being affected by a decision about the constitutionality of a health care law in 2012, the Supreme Court—and specifically its right-wing justices—is doing a really good job discrediting itself as an institution and making the case for reform.
There’s an internal investigation into the leak of Alito’s draft opinion, but here’s an important point:
Whatever is going on over there, the Supreme Court is a mess in ways transcending its Trump-McConnell stacking and extremism. Unfortunately, reproductive rights for millions of people are what’s on the line in the current infighting and strategic leaking.
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