oral arguments made clear this court will overturn roe and they ll insist on their own reasonableness the whole time. dahlia explained to us what she heard that day that gave her the basis for that sort of clarion take. listen. i think going into argument today, there was a narrative that went, this isn t really a 6-3 court. it s a 3-3-3 court that amy coney barrett and brett kavanaugh and the chief justice are incrementalists, they care what people think. there was no reason to believe, other than the chief justice, who was trying to figure out a middle way not to overturn roe, maybe we could move the viability line and be okay with a 15-week instead of 24-week ban. there was no reason to believe, rachel, that he had a single other person on the court with him in that project. i think anyone who could count counted all of the conservative justices, except for roberts, gunning for roe.
on this case, there were demonstrations in front of the supreme court and across the country urging justices not to end roe vs. wade but in the end, that day the headlines were essentially unanimous in papers all across the country. the republican-appointed super conservative anti-abortion super majority on the supreme court, they appear to be ready to outright overturn roe vs. wade or gut it so it doesn t mean anything anymore. the oral arguments that day ran about three hours. if you have a long drive ahead of you or something over the holidays like that, it s actually worth listening to the whole three hours. it s really engaging. but if you want to catch just one exchange, let it be this one. trump appointee, justice brett kavanaugh, appears poised to gut abortion rights along with the conservative majority on the court. this is justice kavanaugh during the oral arguments characterizing that prospect. as the court simply becoming neutral on the issue of
combat on the issue? let s be grateful that these folks really meant it let s put it aside. the artifice that i worry about and you played that brett kavanaugh clip, the artifice of saying let s pretend to be neutral. we are not going to ban abortion. kavanaugh said that is on the table. he said there is not a right. the middle, neutral place is to just let states decide. we saw the same artifice. because there are safe haven laws allowing you to more readily give your child up for
new place where it s just essentially open combat on this issue and we re no longer couching it? yes and no. i mean, i think, look, let s be grateful that all of the fancy law professors and susan collinss and people who told us that these folks really meant when they said roe was precedent, they meant that. okay, let s put that aside. that artifice is gone. the artifice i worry about, and you played that brett kavanaugh clip, is the artifice of saying, like, let s be neutral. we re going to pretend to be neutral. we re not going to ban abortions, said kavanaugh, we re just not going to say there s a right, and that middle place, that neutral place is to just let states decide. we saw that same artifice, amy coney barrett kept insisting that because there were safe haven laws that allow you to more readily give your child up for adoption, it s not a problem for women to be forced to carry to term because they can just give their babies up.
couching it? yes and no. look, let s be grateful that all of the fancy law professors and susan collinses and people who told us what these folks really meant when they said roe was precedent, they meant that, okay, let s put that aside, that artifice is gone. the artifice i worry about, and you played that brett kavanaugh clip, is the artifice of saying, we re going to pretend to be neutral, we re not going to ban abortion, said kavanaugh, we re just going to let states decide. we saw that same artifice, amy coney barrett kept insisting that because there are safe haven laws that allow you to more readily give your child up for adoption, it s not a problem for women to be forced to carry to term because they can just give their babies up. so i think for me, the artifice of we re being neutral, we re