The attorney who will argue against the “constitutional right” to abortion in the monumental Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health case in the U.S. Supreme Court next month had previously clerked for staunchly pro-life Justice Clarence Thomas and served in the Trump administration’s Justice Department.
The U.S. Supreme Court had announced in May it would hear the case, which concerns Mississippi’s HB 1510 law banning abortions later than 15 weeks gestation for any reason other than physical medical emergencies or severe fetal abnormalities.
Scott Grant Stewart was appointed Mississippi’s solicitor general in March and will lead the pro-life fight in Dobbs v. Jackson when oral arguments begin December 1.
The Supreme Court is expected to address the legality of the current precedent for legalized abortion when it hears the Dobbs case. A deluge of amicus briefs have called upon the Court to overturn both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the two landmark cases which established and affirmed the “constitutional right” to pre-viability abortion throughout all 50 U.S. states.
Pro-life and pro-abortion advocates alike have recognized Dobbs v. Jackson as having the potential to overturn existing abortion precedent, allowing states to impose broad restrictions or even fully outlaw abortion.
As the attorney representing Mississippi, Stewart will champion his state’s contention that the prior Supreme Court decisions establishing a “right” to abortion were “egregiously wrong” with “no basis in text, structure, history, or tradition.”
“It’s the most aggressive position he could have taken in defending Mississippi’s law, which bans nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy,” the Washington Post contended in a November 9 article highlighting Stewart’s career and involvement in the Dobbs case.
Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston and a conservative legal commentator, told the Post that Dobbs “is going to be a very significant case, not just for [Stewart’s] career but for the conservative legal movement.”
“There’s an entire movement that’s behind him and supporting him,” Blackman said.
Prior to his current appointment as Solicitor General of Mississippi, Stewart served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas from 2015 to 2016, moving on to work in the Trump administration’s Justice Department as counsel to the assistant attorney general and later deputy assistant attorney general.
A graduate of Princeton University and Stanford Law School, Stewart wrote a paper during his senior year at Princeton arguing that U.S. presidents should spend more time talking about the issue of abortion. The Post suggested Stewart “seemed to prefer reasoned, dispassionate debate, whether about abortion or the death penalty or anything else.”
During his tenure in the Trump administration Stewart represented the federal government in a case against a 17-year-old illegal immigrant who sought to obtain an abortion in Texas.
While a district court ultimately ordered that the girl be permitted to obtain an abortion in the U.S., Stewart defended the Trump administration’s policy of refusing to “facilitate” abortions for unaccompanied minors who had crossed the southern border illegally and been taken into federal custody….
The above comes from a Nov. 24 story on LifeSiteNews.
When the supreme court overturns roe, I’m sure all the leftists will agree that since the court has ruled we should all accept and abide by the ruling. That’s what they say in every other court case that goes their way. Oh, I see what they’re doing…
Although not a constitutional scholar, I would think any honest reading of the Constitution would not provide any ground for abortion. Out of political necessity justices found this right regardless. Would a majority of justices admit the mistake? I guess we shall find out soon enough. If they do overturn Roe v. Wade there will be an uproar which the Democrats could use to advantage in the midterm elections, and Biden will have an issue that could prop him up so he at least survives his first term. The “war on women” strategy might propel the Democrats even though the real issue is the war on the unborn. And so it goes…
Not only that, it could propel a constitutional amendment protecting abortion. Not right away since There aren’t enough legislatures lined up, but it could turn into a multi decade strategy to return statehouses to Ds.
It was very inspiring, recently, to read in the Catholic news, all about Bishop Joseph Strickland as the one, lone bishop, prayerfully participating in a Catholic demonstration outside the Baltimore USCCB meeting, protesting giving Communion to pro-abortion “Catholic” politicians. Very inspiring, to see photos of Bishop Strickland, shepherd for the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, kneeling and praying with the group.