Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said Sunday he will only vote to confirm Supreme Court justice picks who oppose Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that solidified abortion rights, and believe it was “wrongly decided.”
“I will vote only for those Supreme Court nominees who have explicitly acknowledged that Roe v. Wade is wrongly decided. By explicitly acknowledged, I mean on the record and before they were nominated,” Hawley told the Washington Post.
Hawley said he wants more than “private assurances” from candidates. Their “personal view” don’t matter, but their track records do, he explained.
“I’m not looking for forecasts about how they may vote in the future or predications—I don’t want any of that,” he added. “I want to see on the record, as part of their record, that they have acknowledged in some forum that Roe v. Wade, as a legal matter, is wrongly decided.”
The Missouri senator said it doesn’t matter “who nominates them.”
“This standard, for me, applies to Supreme Court nominees, whether they’re a sitting judge or whatever,” Hawley said.
“If there is no indication in their record that at any time they have acknowledged that Roe was wrong at the time it was decided, then I’m not going to vote for them — and I don’t care who nominates them.”
Hawley’s comments come less than a month after the Supreme Court struck down a pro-life law in Louisiana with a 5-4 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts—for whom Hawley clerked—casting the deciding vote alongside the liberal justices.
Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito voted for the pro-life law, but only Thomas said in his dissenting opinion that the entire premise of the abortion debate, Roe v. Wade, is a problematic doctrine that needs to be overturned.
