An adviser to President Donald Trump on the Supreme Court discounts concerns that the next justice confirmed to the high court will help it overturn the 1973 landmark decision that legalized abortion.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday” aired Sunday, Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society and Trump adviser who helped draw up list of 25 judges to consider to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy said “no president is particularly good at speculating” about the decisions a jurist will make.
“Roe v. Wade is a very major precedent, and for 36 years people have been talking about it being overturned,” Leo said.
“No president is particularly good at speculating about this thing,” he said. “I don’t think it’s about Roe v. Wade, it’s about having judges on the court who will interpret the constitution the way it’s written, and part of that is taking under consideration precedents and that’s going to happen.”
Only one justice has said he’d “explicitly overturn” the landmark decision, and that’s Justice Clarence Thomas, he added.
Leo also said pro-choice GOP Senators who could prove crucial in a confirmation vote — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — have looked for fairness in a judge when Justice Neil Gorsuch last went through the Senate process.
“Senator Collins… wants someone to adhere to the constitution and the law,” he said. “None of the [possible nominees] being talked about it in the public space have a clear position on Roe v. Wade.”
He pointed in particular to prospective nominees, judges Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Raymond Kethledge and Thomas Hardiman, as “people who have not specifically said they’d oppose Roe v. Wade.”
“They look at arguments from both sides all the time,” he said of the judges. “We want that kind of fairness in a judge.”
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