Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch signed off on a 98-page draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in just 10 minutes, according to a breakdown of how the high court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion by the New York Times.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett M. Kavanaugh also said they would sign on to the opinion, circulated by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., and none requested a single alteration to it.
Barrett, though, originally opposed even taking up the case, according to the Times, so it was re-listed on the docket week after week. Dobbs became the second most re-listed case ever granted review.
“If the court’s opinions change with its membership, public confidence in the court as an institution might decline,” Barrett wrote in a law review article laying out the dilemma she faced in spring 2021. “Its members might be seen as partisan rather than impartial and case law as fueled by power rather than reason.”
Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Oct. 26, 2020, about a week before Election Day and 30 days after she was nominated by then-President Donald Trump to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Times in its report said Alito likely pre-circulated the Dobbs draft opinion among his four allies to get buy-in before sharing it with the full group of justices.
The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022 shocked the nation in overturning nearly 50 years of precedent based on the 1973 Supreme Court decision on abortion, Roe v. Wade.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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