Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has expressed his opinion that many laws and regulations in America can affect basic freedoms. It's a rich statement coming from a man who voted to abolish Roe v. WadeThus, the law allows states to put women or their doctors in prison for fetal endangerment or abortion.
“There is too little law, and we will not be safe, and our freedoms will not be protected,” Gorsuch told The Associated Press in an interview about his upcoming book. Over-Law: The Human Price of Over-Law“But too much law may actually weaken the very things.”
In the wake of Roe v. Wade, fourteen states have criminalized abortion, and another fourteen states and territories have become “hostile” to abortion, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, meaning lawmakers are moving toward banning abortion. In Louisiana, lawmakers have made it illegal even to possess the abortion pill without a valid prescription, so those caught with mifepristone and misoprostol who can’t produce a prescription could face hefty fines and jail time. Earlier this year, a House Republican caucus backed a nationwide abortion ban — something Donald Trump and his vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance, have previously supported.
But these are not the kinds of laws Gorsuch seemed to mean when he said, “I have had many cases where I have seen ordinary Americans, ordinary, everyday people, trying to go about their lives, not trying to hurt anybody or do anything wrong, and they are unexpectedly struck down by some legal rule they know nothing about.”
Gorsuch also spoke on Fox News about the Biden administration’s proposed Supreme Court reforms. “I’m just saying: Be careful,” Gorsuch warned.
An independent judiciary, he added, “means that when you are unpopular, you can get a fair trial.”
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have proposed reforming the court in the wake of stories about undisclosed gifts and vacations to Justice Clarence Thomas funded by right-wing Nazi-obsessed billionaire Harlan Crow, as well as the court’s ruling that Donald Trump and other former presidents have immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office — a decision that shocked even Trump’s team.
Biden and Harris called on Congress to impose 18-year term limits on Supreme Court justices, and to establish a binding ethics code “requiring justices to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest.”
Gorsuch declined to comment specifically on the proposed reforms, citing his desire to stay out of campaign issues during the election cycle.
“I'm not going to get into a political issue right now during a presidential election year. I don't think that would be helpful,” he said.
Last month, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan publicly endorsed the idea of an enforceable ethics code.
“It's hard to know exactly who should do this and what kinds of penalties might be appropriate for violating the rules, but I feel like, as difficult as it is, we can and should try to come up with a mechanism to do that,” Kagan said.
