Neil Gorsuch’s Big, Dirty Abortion Game

We know how much Justice Neil Gorsuch hates abortion, but the hints he dropped on his views on the future of Roe v. Wade are troubling.

Photo of Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch wearing a black robe, blue collared shirt and red tie in front of a red curtain
If you're against Justice Neil Gorsuch, this episode is for you. Erin Schaff/Pool/Getty Images

It’s been a while since we’ve talked about what a bad dude Justice Neil Gorsuch is, and if you’d forgotten, the abortion double feature at the Supreme Court a week ago was a good reminder.

Last Monday’s two challenges to Texas SB 8 had some surprises and some predictable takes from the justices—Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were obviously not having it, and Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh surprisingly seemed a little itchy at the idea that SB 8’s bounty provision could be used to limit other rights.

And Gorsuch? Well, he showed just how much he hates abortion.

In this week’s Neil Gorsuch episode of Boom! Lawyered, hosts Jessica Mason Pieklo and Imani Gandy get into Trump’s first Supreme Court appointee to the bench—his dissents, his associations (hello, Federalist Society!), and how his questioning during last week’s proceedings could be a path to dismantling Roe v. Wade.

Jess and Imani zero in on a dangerous talking point from Gorsuch that will empower so much bad faith from conservatives: the idea that it’s totally acceptable if a constitutional right can only asserted in the “defensive posture” basically, after your rights have already been violated—and that there’s no problem with blatantly unconstitutional laws just hanging around on the books until that point.

If you’re as confused as the rest of us, listen to Jess and Imani explain it all.

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Transcript (pdf)

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