CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Wednesday that confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court would spell doom for the 1973 landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade.
Toobin told “New Day” hosts Alisyn Camerota and John Berman that overturning Roe v. Wade had been the conservative legal community’s “biggest obsession” since the court ruled on it in 1973, and he argued that if Coney Barrett were to join the court, they might just have the votes to do it. (RELATED: According To CNN Analyst Jeffrey Toobin, Abortion Was Supposed To Be Illegal In 18 States By Now)
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Camerota broached the subject, saying that while many Americans are divided on some of the finer points of the abortion argument, only 20% want it outlawed outright.
Toobin responded by saying that Republican presidents understood that, and that they often tried to “pretend that it’s some mystery” what their nominees thought about Roe v. Wade because they know overturning the decision is less popular politically.
“But let’s be clear, since 1973, when Roe v. Wade was decided, it has been the single biggest obsession of the conservative legal movement to see that decision overturned,” Toobin continued. “They know it’s politically unpopular in the country, but they want to do it anyway, but they want to do it in such a way that there’s no political accountability for it.”
Toobin went on to warn that if the decision were to be overturned, “abortion would be illegal in about a third of the country almost immediately, because the states would move to ban it.”
Toobin’s overall assessment was that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both appointed by President Donald Trump, would likely vote to overturn the decision — and he argued that Coney Barrett would likely join them in doing so.
“I don’t think there’s any mystery. This is the stakes in this nomination,” Toobin concluded.
Toobin made a similar prediction in 2018, following the announcement of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement.
Anthony Kennedy is retiring. Abortion will be illegal in twenty states in 18 months. #SCOTUS
— Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) June 27, 2018
Amy Coney Barrett’s name has been circulating as a likely replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away last Friday from metastatic pancreatic cancer, but President Trump has said that he will not announce his nominee until Saturday afternoon.