Washington, D.C.—People For the American Way today released the following statement from PFAW Executive Vice President Marge Baker in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to block a sham Louisiana law designed to deny women their constitutional right to abortion services. Justice Brett Kavanaugh published a dissent in the case that demonstrates the threat he poses to reproductive rights and the proper functioning of our legal system.
“Last night, even as a bare majority of the Supreme Court made the correct decision, Justice Kavanaugh found a way to prove conclusively what everyone already knows: that he intends to use his position on the court to attack reproductive freedom. Kavanaugh dissented from the court’s order, saying he would have let the law go into effect, a move that ignores the Court’s own precedent and would have put women’s rights in Louisiana in extreme jeopardy. He essentially endorsed the outrageous decision of the appellate court to ignore the detailed factual record established by the lower court and then re-try the facts in the case, a move that flies in the face of the proper functioning of our legal system. That he did so specifically when the issue of abortion rights was involved should escape no one’s notice.
“Senator Susan Collins claimed she supported Kavanaugh because he would respect precedent and the rule of law, but his dissent confirms in no uncertain terms that this wasn’t true. Kavanaugh’s dissent demonstrates—again—the threat he poses to women, and we will hold Collins accountable for her role in confirming him to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court.”