Justice Kavanaugh’s kingmaker critical of his ‘inconsistent’ take on Roe v Wade

Senator Susan Collins cast the deciding vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018. The lawmaker is now accusing justice Kavanaugh of breaking his promises on Roe v. Wade.

Justice Kavanaugh secured a Supreme Court confirmation with a thin 50-48 vote. The dealmaker for him was his promise to be more lenient towards abortion rights in the United States, ABC News reported. But the Supreme Court draft leak on Monday told a different story.

Also Read: Can Congress rescue Roe vs Wade?

Senator Collins, a Republican from Maine, reacted to justice Kavanaugh’s reviewed stance on Roe v. Wade. “If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office”, the lawmaker said, according to reports from ABC News.

“Obviously, we won’t know each Justice’s decision and reasoning until the Supreme Court officially announces its opinion in this case”, Collins added.

After private negotiations with Senator Collins, justice Kavanaugh called Roe v. Wade a “settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court”. This was also cleverly used by Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Senate confirmation earlier this year.

“The Supreme Court has recognized the right to abortion since the 1973 Roe v. Wade case. It has reaffirmed it many times”, Kavanaugh said at his Senate hearing. Followers of Collins are now accusing justice Kavanaugh of “saying what was necessary to buy himself the Supreme Court confirmation.”

Also Read: Roe v Wade: SCOTUS draft leak shakes US midterm election landscape

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi made similar claims.

“Several of these conservative Justices, who are in no way accountable to the American people, have lied to the US Senate, ripped up the Constitution and defiled both precedent and the Supreme Court’s reputation”, the two lawmakers said in a joint statement on Monday.