Source: United States Senator for Vermont Patrick Leahy
“I was deeply concerned, and saddened, to read reports that a narrow majority on the Supreme Court may be poised to overturn the landmark decision Roe v. Wade. If the reporting is correct, the Supreme Court could send us tumbling backward in time, stripping away a bedrock constitutional right that has granted women autonomy over their bodies and health for nearly five decades.
“Our independent federal judiciary is a crown jewel of our American system of government. It is the envy of the world. Today’s news threatens to propel us toward the politicization of our independent judiciary, and that should alarm every American. Millions of Americans understand what this would mean. It is no wonder that protests broke out on the steps of the Supreme Court overnight, just minutes after the reports came out, dotted with signs reading ‘we’re never going back.’
“If this is the direction in which this Supreme Court is headed, it would do irreparable damage to whatever remaining trust Americans have in our judiciary as an independent, apolitical branch of our government. Overturning Roe v. Wade thus would not only endanger the enshrined rights of millions of Americans, but endanger our constitutional system of government itself. And who knows where this ungrounded judicial activism would end?”
# # # # #