Supreme Court Justice shoots down lawyer’s wild claim about LGBTQ rights

The lawyer said the right won’t use attacks on abortion to take away LGBTQ rights. Sonia Sotomayor called bullshit.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Photo: Gage Skidmore/via Wikipedia

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor practically accused a lawyer of lying when he said that he didn’t think that LGBTQ rights will be put in danger if the Court overturns the right to abortion.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case challenging Mississippi’s new ban on abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, a clear violation of Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a right to abortion before a fetus is viable. The state is asking the Court to overturn Roe.

Related: The Supreme Court is hearing a case today that could lead to abortion bans in 26 states

Sotomayor, one of the Court’s three liberal judges, said that overturning Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey – another landmark abortion decision – would attack the very idea of a right to privacy. The Constitution doesn’t specifically name that right, but several cases since Roe have relied on the idea that the government should respect individuals’ rights to make their own decisions, particularly when it comes to moral or sexual issues that don’t hurt other people.

She said the Court “recognized them in terms of the religion parents will teach their children. We’ve recognized it in their ability to educate at home if they choose…. We have recognized that sense of privacy in people’s choices about whether to use contraception or not. We’ve recognized it in their right to choose who they’re going to marry.”

Sotomayor also brought up just how big of a change Mississippi is asking for in taking away people’s rights that they’ve grown accustomed to, something the Court has historically been loathe to do.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart, who was defending the abortion ban, about Sotomayor’s reasoning. Stewart said no, that LGBTQ and contraception rights won’t be overturned if abortion rights are because they…

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