The Atlantic

What the Supreme Court’s Abortion Decision Means

Trump promised to appoint justices who would “automatically” overturn <em>Roe v. Wade</em>. The chief justice just made sure that won’t happen before the 2020 election.
Source: Patrick Semansky / AP

Chief Justice John Roberts balked.

This morning, the Supreme Court announced its decision in June Medical Services v. Russo, the first big test of whether, and how, this Court—with two Donald Trump appointees—would revise abortion rights in the United States. When Trump was running for president, he to appoint judges who would “automatically” overturn , the case that established the constitutionality of abortion. Today, the Court has repudiated Trump’s promise with its decision in . While the ruling does not signal that abortion is safe at the Supreme Court, it’s a message that anti-abortion advocates cannot simply expect the Court to reverse abortion rights just because conservative justices now dominate the bench.

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