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Justice Thomas says Supreme Court should overturn gay marriages after overturning Roe v. Wade – Abortion Law
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has argued that the Supreme Court “should reconsider” laws protecting gay marriage and contraception after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Following Friday’s landmark decision that revoked Americans’ constitutional rights to abortion, Thomas called on his fellow Judges to overturn previous rulings that followed similar legal precedent, such as rights to contraception access, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.
The 74-year-old justice, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, argued that since the Constitution’s Due Process Clause was found not to secure a right to an abortion in Friday’s ruling, the court should apply that same logic to other landmark cases.
He cited three in particular including 1965’s Griswold v. Connecticut, which allowed for married couples to buy and use contraception, and 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges, which allowed same-sex couples to legally marry.
In a statement he wrote;
“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion. “Because any substantive due process decision is “demonstrably erroneous,” […] we have a duty to “correct the error” established in those precedents.”
“Griswold v. Connecticut was a landmark 1965 case which ruled the use of contraception between two married individuals was a matter of privacy and constitutionally protected.”