Examining the content of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion and its implications

Examining the content of the leaked Supreme¹ Court draft opinion and its implications

Transcript²

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Carol Sanger, a professor at Columbia Law School, about the draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that could lead to Roe³ V. Wade⁴ being overturned.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

We're continuing to follow the wide-ranging implications of the leaked Supreme Court opinion draft which suggests a majority of justices will overturn Roe v. Wade. Now, if the draft becomes final, abortion⁵ laws would be left up to the states. To further understand the content of that draft opinion and its implications, we turn now to Carol Sanger, professor of law at Columbia Law School and author of "About Abortion: Terminating Pregnancy⁶ In The Twenty-First Century" (ph). Good morning.

CAROL SANGER: Good morning.

FADEL: So let's talk about this draft opinion. It's quite strident. Does this represent Alito's singular view, the view of the majority of the justices? How do we read this?

SANGER: I think you can read it safely as representing the view of the majority of the conservative justices. And it is indeed, as you said, strident, and it is aggressive. It starts out with one paragraph that says people feel all different sorts of ways about abortion, and then after that, it just sort of rips into Roe and Casey, the precedents⁸ for this case, Dobbs, and tears them apart.

FADEL: Were you surprised about the tone and language in the Alito draft? I mean, it doesn't seem at all neutral. He used terms like abortionists instead of abortion providers, and he writes, quote, "Roe was egregiously⁹ wrong from the start."

SANGER: That's right. And he points out that in the old days - i.e., before two days ago - we called fetuses¹¹ potential life in Casey and in Roe. But here now we're calling them unborn children. So that's another way of rhetorically changing how we think about what this is all about.

FADEL: Now, in the draft opinion, Alito argues that nowhere in the Constitution is there language supporting the right to abortion. He states that abortion is clearly a matter to be legislated¹³ by the states. What kind of precedent⁷ would this reasoning set?

SANGER: Well, if this is to be our new law, it will feel familiar to some people who were around in the early '70s and '60s because we're returning exactly to that situation of criminal law is normally a matter decided¹⁴ by the states, and Roe v. Wade made an exception to that by saying, well, not if one of the acts that's called a crime is an actual fundamental right protected by the Constitution, which is what Roe said. Now Roe is more or less being erased¹⁵ so that there is no more federal right to make a decision about an abortion. And the common rhetoric¹² had been, against Roe, well, the word privacy isn't in the Constitution. But Alito has upped the ante on that, and now he says the word abortion isn't in the Constitution. Well, that's true, but neither is the word aircraft carrier or political party or other concepts and things that may be regulated. That's not the key feature. It really is the privacy or liberty that the court acknowledged protected the right in Roe - the abortion right.

FADEL: So let's talk about privacy, this reasoning. What are the larger implications here? We heard the president reference same-sex marriage. I mean, could this go beyond abortion?

SANGER: Yes, it could. Alito tries to assure us that it won't because he said, well, none of these other areas - same-sex marriage, marriage in general, contraception - has involved a fetus¹⁰, another life. But that really - that's a convenient way to distinguish abortion from everything else. But of course, even in Roe, the court had said abortion is unique. It is a reproductive decision. It will necessarily involve pregnancy. And so it's an easy shot to use this as a distinguisher because certainly, contraception involves the idea of a possible pregnancy. He really overstates his case, I think, in many places. But it hardly matters since he's the king of the party and is really calling all the shots.

FADEL: OK. So if this draft becomes final and it says this issue is up to the states, would any federal law legislating¹⁶ abortion protections or banning them then be challenged in court?

SANGER: There could be federal legislation acknowledging and bestowing¹⁷ a right to abortion's legality. So we could have federal legislation saying abortion in the United States is a legal process. And that would codify¹⁸ the rule of Roe and that people can get it up to a certain point. What is interesting is, first of all, there aren't the votes for it politically. There aren't the 60...

FADEL: Right.

SANGER: ...Votes needed in the Senate for this. I think one other interesting thing about this decision is that because it was leaked, it appears to us as the only decision. It's all we've got to go on. If the entire decision had - was ready, with all the dissents¹⁹, we would have a much greater understanding of the weaknesses of Alito's logic²⁰ and reasoning.

FADEL: Carol Sanger is a professor of law at Columbia Law School. Thank you so much.

SANGER: Quite welcome.

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 roe   

n.鱼卵；獐鹿

参考例句：

• We will serve smoked cod's roe at the dinner.宴会上我们将上一道熏鳕鱼子。
• I'll scramble some eggs with roe?我用鱼籽炒几个鸡蛋好吗？

4 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

5 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

6 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

7 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

8 precedents   

引用单元； 范例( precedent的名词复数 )； 先前出现的事例； 前例； 先例

参考例句：

• There is no lack of precedents in this connection. 不乏先例。
• He copied after bad precedents. 他仿效恶例。

9 egregiously   

adv.过份地，卓越地

参考例句：

• But previous Greek governments egregiously violated those limits. 但之前几届希腊政府都严重违反了这些限制。 来自互联网

10 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。

11 fetuses   

n.胎，胎儿( fetus的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• DNA was extracted from fetuses at mid-gestation, about 10 days past conception. DNA从受孕大约10天后的中期妊娠胚胎中提取。 来自互联网
• Brucellosis is a disease that causes fetuses to abort in cattle. 普鲁士菌病是一种可以导致牲畜胎儿夭折的疾病。 来自互联网

12 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

13 legislated   

v.立法，制定法律( legislate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Congress has legislated a new minimum wage for workers. 国会制定了一项新的关于工人最低工资的法律。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Most member countries have already legislated against excessive overtime. 大多数成员国均已立法禁止超时加班。 来自辞典例句

14 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

15 erased   

v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案，写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义，消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 legislating   

v.立法，制定法律( legislate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Why are the senators sitting there without legislating? 为什么那些议员们做在那里不立法？ 来自互联网
• From legislating and protecting peasant's interests organizationally. " 从立法和组织上保护农民利益。 来自互联网

17 bestowing   

砖窑中砖堆上层已烧透的砖

参考例句：

• Apollo, you see, is bestowing the razor on the Triptolemus of our craft. 你瞧，阿波罗正在把剃刀赠给我们这项手艺的特里泼托勒默斯。
• What thanks do we not owe to Heaven for thus bestowing tranquillity, health and competence! 我们要谢谢上苍，赐我们的安乐、健康和饱暖。

18 codify   

v.将法律、法规等编成法典

参考例句：

• The noble,Dracon,was asked to codify the laws.贵族德拉古被选为立法者。
• The new government promised to codify the laws.新政府应允要编纂法典。

19 dissents   

意见的分歧( dissent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Even his dissents were widely quoted, and some prompted legislative changes. 甚至他那些异议也被广泛引用，而且有的还促成了法律上的修改。

20 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。