THE BIG BACKSLIDE

Justice Thomas Warns He’s Coming for Contraception, Same-Sex Relationships

In the Supreme Court’s stunning decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the ultra-conservative justice suggested doing away with various other rights.

In the Supreme Court’s stunning—but not entirely unexpected—decision handed down Friday that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended a woman’s constitutionally protected right to an abortion, ultra-conservative Justice Clarence Thomas suggested taking aim at various other rights Americans have come to take for granted: contraception, same-sex relationships, and gay marriage. In his concurring opinion, Thomas wrote that the “purported right to abortion is not a form of ‘liberty’ protected by the Due Process Clause.” Accordingly, Thomas continued, “we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” referring to the landmark decisions that enshrined the right to birth control, struck down laws criminalizing gay sex, and gave same-sex couples the right to marry.