• Biden slammed Republicans as the "MAGA crowd" following the Supreme Court abortion opinion leak.
  • He said it's the "most extreme political organization that's existed in… in recent American history."
  • He also argued that the court, based on the opinion's reasoning, could overturn other rights.

President Joe Biden issued an uncharacteristically strong criticism of the Republican Party when asked what his administrations next steps would be if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned by the Supreme Court, as a recently-leaked majority opinion indicates will occur. 

"This is about a lot more than abortion," said Biden. "This reminds me of the debate with Robert Bork."

Bork, who served as solicitor general under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before being appointed to the DC Court of Appeals, was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the Supreme Court in 1987, but was blocked by most Senate Democrats and 6 Republicans for holding extreme views, including originally opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Republicans still simmer about that rejection to this day.

Biden, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, said Bork believed that the "only reason you had inherent rights is because the government gave them to you," which Biden contrasted by saying that citizens have rights because each of them are a "child of God."

"So the idea... that there is no right of privacy," Biden began, before bringing up Griswold v. Connecticut, a 1965 decision that there is a "right to privacy" that protects married couples from state restrictions on the use of contraceptives.

"Well, that got struck down," Biden said of the Connecticut law that the case pertained to. The Griswold decision also helped support the "right to privacy" argument at the heart of 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which held that abortions are protected by the Constitution.

"Griswold was thought to be a bad decision by Bork, and my guess is, the guys on the Supreme Court now," said Biden. "What happens if you have states changing the law, saying that children who are LGBTQ can't be in classrooms with other children? Is that legit, under the way that the decision's written?"

Alito's leaked opinion argued that "attempts to justify abortion through appeals to a broader right to autonomy and to define one's 'concept of existence' prove too much" and argued that rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution must be "deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition."

That has Democrats and constitutional scholars alike concerned that the opinion, if it becomes the court's ruling, could set the stage for the revocation of rights pertaining to contraception and same-sex marriage.

"What are the next things that are going to be attacked?" Biden asked. "Because this MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that's existed in American history, in recent American history."

 

Read the original article on Business Insider

Dit artikel is oorspronkelijk verschenen op z24.nl