Never in the history of the Supreme Court has a draft opinion been leaked and the court has so far refused to comment. The court drafted the opinion after agreeing to hear a case around a Mississippi law which criminalised abortions after 15 weeks. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” writes in the majority opinion. In the opinion, the majority said that the ruling had been wrongly decided in the past and that decisions around abortion access should be decided by politicians, not by the courts. Liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented while it is unclear how Chief Justice John Roberts planned to vote. The draft majority opinion on the case, obtained by Politico, was written by Justice Samuel Alito and revealed that he and four other conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – had voted to overturn the ruling. The draft majority opinion, obtained by Politico and confirmed to be authentic by the court on Tuesday, revealed that the nation’s highest court had decided to strike down the landmark Roe v Wade ruling that grants Americans a constitutional right to an abortion. “If the Constitution doesn’t specifically, in writing, outline that right to privacy, then all of those rights that have been affirmed for us that are based on the right to privacy under the 14th Amendment are at risk.” “Many of the rights we enjoy, especially the LGBTQ+ community, are based on unenumerated rights under the 14th Amendment - the right to privacy,” he said. Mr Obergefell said that if the protections offered by the 14th Amendment right to privacy are under attack, then this could extend further afield than reproductive rights and abortion access. “It scares the daylights out of me,” he said. Mr Obergefell told CNN that while the backpedaling of abortion rights marks “a dark day for women in our nation,” he also fears it means that “marriage equality is next” to potentially be axed.
Now, LGBT+ rights activists fear this law could also come under attack following the Supreme Court’s vote to dismantle abortion rights across the country. In 2015, the court made its landmark ruling on Obergefell v Hodges, legalising same-sex marriage across the country and marking the biggest step forward for LGBT+ rights in American history. Just three months and 11 days later, Mr Arthur died and the state of Ohio refused to list his partner of 22 years as his legal spouse on his death certificate due to the ban on same-sex marriage in the state.Ī two-year legal battle ensued, going all the way up to the Supreme Court. They wed inside a medical plane on the airport tarmac as Mr Arthur was gravely ill with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – a disease of the nervous system.
The couple, who lived in Ohio where same-sex marriage was illegal, had to fly to Maryland to be able to marry. Mr Obergefell found himself at the centre of the LGBT+ community’s fight to legalise same-sex marriage back in 2013 when he married his long-term partner John Arthur. We have fought the good fight for too long to be denied our rights now.” five or six people will determine the law of the land and go against the vast majority of Americans who overwhelmingly support a person’s right to make their own health decisions and a couple’s right to be married.