Five questions Ketanji Brown Jackson could face in her Supreme Court hearing
The background
There is no federal abortion law. This summer, the Supreme Court could determine the future of Roe v. Wade, and whether states must allow abortion until a fetus is viable outside the womb, or about 24 weeks. While hearing a case about Mississippi’s 15-week ban, conservative-leaning justices signaled they’re willing to roll back those abortion protections, and they’ve made several decisions that have allowed a six-week abortion ban in Texas to stay in place.
If confirmed, Jackson would join the court after it decides this Mississippi case. But if the court doesn’t knock down Roe entirely, it’s likely that red states will try to bring even more challenges to abortion protections in upcoming terms.
In his 2017 confirmation hearing, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch took the Ginsburg rule to new heights, refusing to answer basic questions about cases that could be coming before the court and nearly any past case — like an 1800s case about congressional power, or whether he explicitly agreed with Brown v. Board of Education, the 1950s case that ended racial segregation in schools.
“I think they dodge these questions,” Gerhardt said, “because from either the administration’s point of view or from the nominee’s point of view, they don’t agree with everything in those cases and therefore they’re not going to sign off on them. But they’re not going to telegraph that.”
Barrett was similarly vague when asked if she agreed that Roe v. Wade, which provides a constitutional right to have an abortion, is super precedent, or a decision that is so ingrained in American life that it can’t be overturned. Barrett defended scholars who argued, in her words: “that doesn’t mean that Roe should be overruled, but descriptively it does mean that it’s not a case that everyone has accepted.” This December, Barrett was one of four conservative justices who seemed ready to overturn at least abortion protections — if not Roe v. Wade entirely.
[What the Supreme Court justices have said about abortion and Roe v. Wade]
