Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' deciding vote to strike down a Louisiana law requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of a clinic came as no surprise, as the case was too similar to a 2016 ruling striking down a similar law in Texas, and Roberts wished to uphold a ruling that had already been reached, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on Newsmax TV Monday.
"This was a case that was not decided on the grounds of abortion," Dershowitz told Newsmax TV's "Greg Kelly Reports." "(If) the issue was abortion, Roe versus Wade, it would have been five to four against Roe versus Wade. This was a case about whether conservative judges should apply precedent to previous cases."
Actually, Dershowitz added, Roberts took a "very conservative position" in the Louisiana case, as he said 'I voted the other way in the Texas case but I lost.'"
And after the Texas case, the law was established on the clinic rule, and Roberts did not want to see that case overturned based on the two new appointees to the court, President Donald Trump-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, said Dershowitz.
"(He wanted) to see the justices follow the law, not create new laws based on their own opinions," Dershowitz added, "so there's a lot of hypocrisy on both sides...he wants to preserve the integrity of the court and send the message that this is not about who gets appointed. Remember he gave a speech saying there are no such things as Democrat or Republican justices, no such thing as Barack Obama justices or Donald Trump justices."
Dershowitz added that he thinks about the abortion issue a great deal because, in 1973, he was opposed to the Roe versus Wade decision because he did not think it was justified that the court reached the decision.
"I could not find in the Constitution the right of a woman to get an abortion," Dershowitz said. "I thought that was an issue that should be left to state legislatures but that was 1973. If I were a justice today, I probably would have joined Justice Roberts' decision, even though I would have probably dissented in Roe versus Wade back in 1973."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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