In an interview broadcast on Monday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch directly confronted CBS reporter Major Garrett’s claims that the Court was depriving Americans of their rights by overturning “settled” cases such as Roe v. Wade.
Gorsuch was one of six justices who voted to uphold a Mississippi law in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case in June 2022. The law banned most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and overturned Roe, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
When Garrett questioned Gorsuch about the critics of the Court’s rulings, the justice responded by asserting that the Supreme Court was actually empowering Americans to make their own decisions.
“For those who would say, ‘But I feel something’s been ripped away from me,’ you would say?” Garrett asked Gorsuch.
He responded: “I would say that we’re taking it back to you. In a democracy, you’re in the driver’s seat. You’re the sovereign. Those famous three first words of the Constitution empower you. Do you really want me deciding everything for you?”
Earlier, Gorsuch told Garrett that the Supreme Court was not banning abortion but rather shifting the decision back to the American people so they, through their state legislatures and governors, could determine the issue themselves rather than having it decided by the Court.
“There are people who watch this right now and say I thought I understood what Roe v. Wade meant in our country,” Garrett told Gorsuch during the interview. “I thought I understood what affirmative action in college admission meant, and this court told me I didn’t understand what that meant, and I wrongly relied on things that I thought were settled. What would you say to those?”
“I would say those are deeply complex legal questions on which reasonable minds can, of course, and do disagree, and that when it comes to Roe v. Wade, for example, what did the court decide?” Gorsuch responded.
“[It] decided that we the people should answer that question, not nine people sitting in Washington, D.C.”
The Justice also defended the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action in college admissions when pressed by Garrett. “What did we decide?” Gorsuch asked rhetorically. “We decided that all people are created equal, that it’s not acceptable in this country to discriminate on the basis of race.”
