The recently departed liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer expressed his regret at having voted against Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs case.
And you ask, did I approve of Dobbs’s choice? I obviously didn’t. In an interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace that will run Sunday night, he said, “Of course I didn’t.” Was I content with it? not for a second. Did I try to convince them as much as I could? Obviously, naturally. But here we are, and we’re moving forward. We make an effort to cooperate.
He forewarned his fellow justices on the Supreme Court that too strict rulings “will come around and bite you in the back.”
Because you’ll discover that what you see just doesn’t function. And the Supreme Court has that type of a problem in spades, perhaps to the dismay of others, Breyer remarked.
Dobbs broke over 50 years of precedent when the conservative justices ruled that the Constitution’s implied “right to privacy” didn’t exist, returning control over abortion regulations to the states.
A draught of the judgement was leaked to the media before it was announced in June, an unprecedented leak from a source within the high court.
When the Dobbs decision’s draught was made public in Politico, Wallace questioned if there had been an earthquake within the court.
A seismic event? Breyer enquired. That kind of stuff simply doesn’t happen, therefore it was quite hurtful. It just does not occur. We are there, too.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black female justice, took Breyer’s position when she announced her retirement earlier this year.
He was a liberal who decided to leave office when the Democrats were in charge of the Senate and the White House.
When the party is divided between control of the Senate and control of the president, there are delays, Breyer said. And occasionally, a lot of time passes, and I would prefer that my own retirement and membership on the court not get entangled in what I refer to as such simply political problems.
Additionally, he refrained from criticising Ginni Thomas, the wife of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been asked to appear before a House select committee on January 6 on her involvement in the effort to rescind the results of the 2020 presidential election.
I don’t go through that because I really think that women who are spouses, particularly wives of Supreme Court justices, must choose for themselves how to live their lives, pursue occupations, what sort of careers, etc., Breyer said.
I won’t be critical of Ginni Thomas since I like her. I won’t be critical of Clarence since I like him. We are there,” the liberal justice said.
While there are “occasionally” two opposing groups on the bench, according to Breyer, there is “less animosity than people assume.”
Less than you think, but I can’t rule out the possibility, Breyer added. Maybe a bit less merry, but not, I mean, I haven’t heard anybody yell at each other in that conference room.