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On Monday evening, a draft of the Supreme Court majority opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization—a challenge to Mississippi's legislative sanctions on reproductive freedom—was leaked.
The 98 page draft was attributed to Justice Samuel Alito and later verified as authentic but not finalized by Chief Justice John Roberts.
In the opinion—expected to be cosigned by Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, Alito makes clear the intent of the five conservative justices is to overturn the prior SCOTUS rulings in 1973's Roe v. Wade and 1992's Casey v. Planned Parenthood.
Three of the five justices were nominated by former Republican President Donald Trump. Neil Gorsuch was confirmed by the then Republican controlled Senate after they blocked President Barack Obama's SCOTUS pick for almost a year.
Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett were pushed through the confirmation process before Republicans lost both the presidency and control of the Senate.
Two supposedly moderate Republicans—Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—stated many times that preservation of reproductive rights would affect their SCOTUS votes. Despite the fact Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett were specifically chosen for Trump by a conservative Evangelical Christian PAC for their pro-fundamentalist views, Collins and Murkowski claimed reproductive freedom was safe in their hands.
Now that Collins and Murkowski were proven wrong, Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York is taking them to task for failing to do their due diligence before voting to confirm Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett.
Both Murkowski and Collins are claiming they were misled.
More MURKOWSKI: \u201cIf the decision is going the way that the draft that has been revealed is actually the case, it was not\u2014it was not the direction that I believed that the court would take based on statements that have been made about Roe being settled and being precedent.\u201d— Frank Thorp V (@Frank Thorp V) 1651595059
Susan Collins:\u00a0\u201cIf this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office.\u201d— Manu Raju (@Manu Raju) 1651586644
You foolish, gullible, naive and intellectually lackadaisical person.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/susan-collins-supreme-court-abortion_n_62713870e4b0bc48f5802733\u00a0\u2026— Mark Ruffalo (@Mark Ruffalo) 1651610169
But AOC isn't letting the GOP Senators off the hook with those excuses.
AOC tweeted:
"Murkowski voted for Amy Coney Barrett when Trump himself proclaimed that he was appointing justices specifically to overturn Roe."
"She and Collins betrayed the nation’s reproductive rights when they were singularly capable of stopping the slide."
"They don’t get to play victim now."
Murkowski voted for Amy Coney Barrett when Trump himself proclaimed that he was appointing justices specifically to overturn Roe.\n\nShe and Collins betrayed the nation\u2019s reproductive rights when they were singularly capable of stopping the slide. They don\u2019t get to play victim nowhttps://twitter.com/frankthorp/status/1521520984733491200\u00a0\u2026— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1651594388
Representative Ocasio-Cortez pointed out how Democratic Senators like Kyrsten Sinema contributed to the repeal of reproductive rights as well.
We could protect Roe tomorrow, but Sinema refuses to act on the filibuster. Until that changes she can take a seat talking about \u201cwomen\u2019s access to health care.\u201d\n\nHold everyone contributing to this disaster accountable, GOP & Dem obstructionists included. She should be primaried.https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1521513849765179392\u00a0\u2026— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1651596073
Others also called out Murkowski and Collins as naive, ignorant or worse.
Seems like the only person who didn\u2019t realize what a fool Susan Collins was\u2026 was Susan Collins.pic.twitter.com/FFaVMpkU6W— Brian Tyler Cohen (@Brian Tyler Cohen) 1651541128
a majority of the court was nominated by presidents who lost the popular votehttps://twitter.com/therecount/status/1521539558751580162\u00a0\u2026— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1651598463
Since Susan Collins wants you to think that she's an actual simpleton who was misled, is she going to now join the Democrats in codifying Roe v Wade with legislation or nah?— Elie Mystal (@Elie Mystal) 1651591422
If Murkowski & Collins are really furious that justices lied to them, and really care about abortion rights, there is a clear path for them to take: change the filibuster rule, even if targeted just for the one vote on legislation to codify Roe. Refuse? Disingenuous, hypocritical— Norman Ornstein (@Norman Ornstein) 1651610061
So, are we supposed to comiserate with Susan Collins' saying she was misled by Kavanagh and Gorsuch on Roe v. Wade? With her 25 years in Congress, we are supposed to believe she was naive when she accepted what reproductive rights advocates said at the time were obvious lies?— Meteor_Blades (@Meteor_Blades) 1651598300
Senate judiciary needs to hold hearings on whether justices lied. Call Collins and Murkowski as witnesses— Jennifer 'I stand with Ukraine' Rubin \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Jennifer 'I stand with Ukraine' Rubin \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1651609719
This Collins woman is a real moron. She is dismayed by the decision of the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs Wade. She voted for these SC nominees and she knew damn well something like this would happen. Oh poor little Suzie is trying to play the victim.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/susan-collins-supreme-court-abortion_n_62713870e4b0bc48f5802733\u00a0\u2026— Richard Caslon (@Richard Caslon) 1651607161
A reminder that even though there are 2 self-described pro-choice Republicans in the Senate -- Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski -- they were both fine with confirming lots of Trump's anti-abortion judges.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/abortion-lisa-murkowski-susan-collins-trump-judges_n_5ade226ae4b0b2e8113244df\u00a0\u2026— Jennifer Bendery (@Jennifer Bendery) 1651590992
NEW from me: Susan Collins has a statement out that implies that Kavanaugh and Gorsuch misled her about whether they\u2019d vote to kill Roe v Wade\n\nThat\u2026is a stretch. At best. And absurd to think she couldn\u2019t see this coming.https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/supreme-court-overturning-roe-v-wade-was-always-gop-goal-n1295089\u00a0\u2026— Hayes Brown (@Hayes Brown) 1651598570
It is important to remember the no matter her stated pro-choice stance, Lisa Murkowski voted:\n'Present' on Kavanaugh.\n'Yea' on Coney Barrett.\n'Yea' on Gorsuch\n'Yea' on Alito\n'Yea' on Roberts\n'No' on Sotomayor\n'No' on Kagan\n'Yea' on Jackson*\n\nThe only exception.— Brian Lieb (@Brian Lieb) 1651556203
I\u2019m struggling to recover from the realization that Susan Collins may have been misled.— bob clendenin \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@bob clendenin \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1651621643
Susan Collins is a damn liar, ok? Since Manu and the rest of the press reading her insulting statement ad nauseam let me remind Donald Trump said he was putting Judges on the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe v Wade. Full stop. Collins knew. Now she\u2019s claiming she was misled.https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1521490781638385664\u00a0\u2026— Jen Psaki\u2019s Head Tilt (@Jen Psaki\u2019s Head Tilt) 1651587816
Chief Justice Roberts verified on Tuesday that the 98 page draft was authentic.
However, Roberts stated "it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case."
BREAKING: Chief Justice John Roberts has directed the marshal of the Supreme Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, which Roberts verified as an authentic documentpic.twitter.com/vcq4lTY7bk— John Kruzel (@John Kruzel) 1651590932
An investigation into how the draft was leaked launched on Tuesday at the request of Roberts.