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Conservative Legal Activists Follow SCOTUS’s Abortion Cases With Worry About What If They Are Lost



“There are a lot of conservatives who would wash their hands with the entire business if conservatives didn’t,” said Mike Davis, assistant Senate Judiciary Committee who founded the Article III Project, a conservative judiciary. in the right direction in these cases. advocacy group.

Growing concern among socially conservative stakeholders and anti-abortion activists – which comes as two abortion-related cases will be decided by the Supreme Court in the coming months – comes from a series of episodes where Republican-appointed judges have sided with their liberal counterparts in cases involving LGBTQ rights, the Affordable Care Act, and liberties. religion – blinded conservative groups that helped them through the Senate confirmation process and provoked intense debates within the conservative movement about the process of vetting candidates.

Many of these groups saw it as a betrayal when Justice Neil Gorsuch, the first of former President Donald Trump’s three appointees to the court, delivered a majority opinion in 2016. Last year in Bostock and Clayton counties, where sexual orientation and gender identity were added as classes protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

More recently, judges Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh have made conservative court watchers wary of their interrogation lines during oral arguments in the United States and Texas, a related case. to a Texas law known as SB 8, which prohibits most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. . Two Trump appointees “expressed public skepticism about the construction of abortion laws in Texas … sending shivers down the spine of conservatives,” Rachel Bovard read a passage by Rachel Bovard in The Federalist, a extremely conservative media outfit, just days after speaking. argument in case.

Bovard, who served as senior director for policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute, told CNN that the two abortion-related cases will directly challenge the stature of prominent conservative law groups such as the Union Confederation. states, which tends to significantly influence the judicial nomination process under Republican Administrations.

They could no longer be the sole major player of the Supreme Court if the conservative legal movement had made us produce judges who could not overturn what the legal movement said. conservatives consider it blatantly unconstitutional.

While many court observers expect the Supreme Court to cut abortion rights in some form through Dobbs sues Jackson Women’s Health OrganizationProminent conservatives from former Vice President Mike Pence to Crisis Justice Network President Carrie Severino have begun to set expectations for an outcome that cannot completely overhaul Roe.
“Legally, I think this question is easy, but you can have several judges hung up the question of assertiveness staring“, said Severino, referring to the legal doctrine of precedent.

“At the end of the day, we’re dealing with fallible humans,” she added, arguing that “no matter how much testing and effort goes into the process,” there’s a chance that Trump-appointed judges may disappoint conservatives once again.

In a speech Tuesday organized by the American Liberal Progressives policy organization and the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, Pence said the Supreme Court should put Roe “in the ashes of history.” , while acknowledging what the judges would be like. The rule is far from certain.

“Now more than ever, we need our conservative majority on the Supreme Court of the United States to return the question of life to the states and the people,” Pence said. “While I cannot say how the Supreme Court will rule, I can confidently say today that the situation has turned for the pro-life movement.”

The former vice president’s remarks could exacerbate concerns among conservatives who already fear the courts will pass up their first opportunity in decades to completely abolish abortion rights in the United States. caused massive upheaval in the conservative legal movement and dented donors’ enthusiasm for anti-abortion groups that had long promised a new horizon in their fight against reproductive rights. if the Supreme Court wins a conservative majority.

But instead of directing their anger toward Pence and Trump, whose administrations cemented conservative majority of the court with the appointment of Kavanaugh, Barrett and Gorsuch, Davis said the Federalist Association has may suffer the disappointment of conservatives. The group has previously been criticized by social conservatives, who claim that they prioritize judges as trusted allies on legal issues but less on social issues.

“They’re going to say the Federation’s way of choosing judges is wrong. I understand that tendency because we’ve been disappointed so many times, but once you start to normalize judicial activity – whether it is right or left – we Davis said.

Defenders of the current conservative approach to judicial nominations have dismissed attempts to impose purple litmus tests on nominees, such as the claim made by Senator Josh Hawley put before Barrett’s confirmation hearings as “vote only to those Supreme Court nominees who have clearly recognized Roe v. Wade’s wrong decision.” Severino said the final work The end of a judge “is not chosen so that they promote certain policy outcomes.” Davis said the only kneeling test for conservative judicial appointees “should be courage.”

But others say that if the Supreme Court disappoints conservatives with its upcoming rulings, the universal lesson is that the process of vetting candidates must be drastically revised – even when that means breaking up the conservative legal movement in its current form. Advocates for that change say more stakeholders should be consulted during the examination and more probing questions about how potential judges might rule in a court of law. Certain circumstances should be encouraged.

“If the courts are wrong, future administrations will need to consult a much broader group of people than in the past, and we need more people in the room to ask questions directly,” said Bovard. .

If the court refuses to end the legal abortion right and allows legal challenges to Texas’ restrictive law banning the procedure after about six weeks, Pence and Trump will lose a key talking point as they weigh prompting separate White House bids in 2024. The duo have long hailed the trio of conservative Supreme Court appointments they oversaw as one of their crowning achievements – using it was to reassure anti-abortion people that they would likely see Roe undo in their lifetime.

“Today, we gather on the brink of what could be a new era in American history – an era in which all human life is once again cherished and respected,” Pence said. said Tuesday to the anti-abortion crowd.

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