Supreme Court’s Institutional Integrity at Risk

Chief Justice John Roberts, an ardent believer in the premise that the Supreme Court has a solemn responsibility to defend its institutional integrity, lamented the Court’s decision to let stand a Texas statute, S.B. 8, which prohibits abortion after six weeks. As the world knows, this law eviscerates the fundamental right of women to obtain an abortion, first declared by the Court in 1973 in Roe v. Wade and reiterated numerous times over the past half century. Chief Justice Roberts quoted an 1809 opinion: “If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution becomes a solemn mockery.” Roberts added: “The nature of the federal right infringed does not matter; it is the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system that is at stake.” The Court, currently dominated by five ultra-conservatives—Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanugh and Barrett—has empowered state nullification of a landmark precedent that threatens the rule of law and the Constitution. The behavior of this quintet sounds the alarm bells: no precedent is safe.