Legal experts: Alito's abortion draft 'undermines the rule of law' — just like Trump
On Tuesday, writing for Slate, former solicitor general Norm Eisen and Brookings government analyst Colby Galliher tore into Justice Samuel Alito, arguing that his draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade shows the exact disdain for the rule of law that former President Donald Trump consistently showed.
"By upending one of the core legal principles governing the Supreme Court’s functioning, the Alito draft undermines the rule of law — and the court’s legitimacy," they wrote. "It is akin to Trump’s incessant assault on the laws and norms of the presidency, which in time undermined and weakened the executive branch and Americans’ faith in it. Alito and the four justices who are reportedly ready to rule with him are sending the Supreme Court down that same slippery slope. And they are sending a dangerous message: if Roe can be tossed out, then any Supreme Court precedent is in jeopardy. There goes stare decisis."
"Why this race into recklessness? It is driven by the second core tenet of Trumpery: elevation of selfish personal interests over public policy ones," they wrote. "Alito is himself reportedly opposed to abortion in his personal life, as are some of the other members of the majority. With this draft decision, they have apparently allowed their personal agendas to seep into their abandonment of stare decisis and their official policymaking."
Alito, like Trump, also consistently lies in his opinion, they wrote — including the idea that the Supreme Court can't protect unenumerated rights, or that abortion is eugenics targeted at Black people.
And the consequences of all this, they warned, will be to divide and polarize society in exactly the same way that Trump's behavior did.
"Disregard for (and even intentionally exacerbating) social divisions was a specialty of the former president, who did everything possible to gratify his base," they concluded. "Tragically, this draft opinion smacks of a similar approach, consequences be damned."
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