Is SCOTUS ready to cross public opinion on Roe?


Americans don't want to overturn Roe v. Wade.
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll indicates that 60 percent of U.S. adults want to see the abortion-rights precedent upheld, and a slightly higher number — 65 percent — believe that Texas' new anti-abortion law should be overturned. The results of the new poll aren't an outlier: Pew Research has been tracking the question for nearly 30 years and has consistently found that roughly two-thirds of Americans oppose completely undoing Roe.
Two-thirds of Supreme Court justices might have other ideas. While the Texas law appears to be in trouble — mostly because it was written to evade judicial scrutiny — justices next month will hear a Mississippi case in which the state explicitly seeks to overturn Roe's precedent. Given how much abortion has loomed over Supreme Court nomination battles in recent decades, it's easy to conclude the court's 6-3 conservative supermajority was manufactured specifically for this purpose.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Conservatives will and do argue that Roe is a bad precedent and should be overturned. But if that ends up being the case, justices will be going against another longstanding, albeit informal precedent: that the court doesn't usually get too far away from public opinion on big cases that upend society's status quo.
For example, the court's unanimous desegregation ruling in 1954's Brown v. Board of Education sparked "massive resistance" in the South, but it had broad support from the public. A Gallup poll taken at the time showed 55 percent of Americans approved the ruling while just 40 percent disapproved. Historian Michael Klarman has noted that Justice Felix Frankfurter speculated the ruling wouldn't have been possible just a decade earlier, before public opinion had begun to crystallize against segregation. Similarly, the court's decision to uphold gay marriage in 2015 came after a generation-long rise to majority support among the public.
"There's this idea that the court will stand in opposition to public opinion," Michael J. Nelson, a Penn State political science professor, said last year. "But in reality, the court's decisions tend to be pretty congruent with public opinion."
The court's job isn't to look at the polls. Traditionally, though, the Supreme Court has often reflected public sentiment. (Indeed, Chief Justice John Roberts has spent much of his career constructing limited rulings with an eye on the court's public legitimacy.) Overturning Roe would mark a major departure from that approach. If that happens, we'll see what it means for the court's already fragile standing.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Joel Mathis is a writer with 30 years of newspaper and online journalism experience. His work also regularly appears in National Geographic and The Kansas City Star. His awards include best online commentary at the Online News Association and (twice) at the City and Regional Magazine Association.
-
Why are student loan borrowers falling behind on payments?
Today's Big Question Delinquencies surge as the Trump administration upends the program
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Not there yet: The frustrations of the pocket AI
Feature Apple rushes to roll out its ‘Apple Intelligence’ features but fails to deliver on promises
By The Week US Published
-
George Foreman: The boxing champ who reinvented home grills
Feature He helped define boxing’s golden era
By The Week US Published
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weapons
The Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
By Abby Wilson Published
-
The arrest of the Philippines' former president leaves the country's drug war in disarray
In the Spotlight Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the ICC earlier this month
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?
The Explainer Donald Trump's 'dictator' jibe raises pressure on Ukraine to the polls while the country is under martial law
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Why Serbian protesters set off smoke bombs in parliament
THE EXPLAINER Ongoing anti-corruption protests erupted into full view this week as Serbian protesters threw the country's legislature into chaos
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Who is the Hat Man? 'Shadow people' and sleep paralysis
In Depth 'Sleep demons' have plagued our dreams throughout the centuries, but the explanation could be medical
By The Week Staff Published
-
Was Jimmy Carter America's best ex-president?
Today's Big Question Carter's presidency was marred by the Iran hostage crisis, but his work in the decades after leaving office won him global acclaim
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Why Assad fell so fast
The Explainer The newly liberated Syria is in an incredibly precarious position, but it's too soon to succumb to defeatist gloom
By The Week UK Published
-
Romania's election rerun
The Explainer Shock result of presidential election has been annulled following allegations of Russian interference
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published