Just as most conservatives never accepted the legitimacy of Roe v. Wade, and waged a fifty year struggle to overturn it, so the vast majority of progressives are unlikely to accept Dobbs, and would be happy to reverse it as soon as they get a chance to do so. This is clear both from the left-liberal reaction to Dobbs since it came down, and from the development of the abortion issue over the last several decades, as well. Neither side in this constitutional debate is willing to give much, if any, credence to the legitimacy of the other.
If a future liberal Supreme Court majority reverses Dobbs, conservatives might cite the Dobbs’ dissent’s paeans to the value of precedent. But liberals could easily respond by citing the conservatives’ own willingness to reverse precedent in Dobbs itself. Moreover, the Dobbs dissent does acknowledge that”we are not saying that a decision can never be overruled just because it is terribly wrong.” Most progressives no doubt believe that Dobbs is one such “terribly wrong” ruling, perhaps even a paradigmatic example thereof.
It may seem as if a liberal Supreme court majority is a long way off. But it may not be. Dobbs is backed by a 6-3 majority (or possibly only 5-4, if you don’t count Chief Justice Roberts, who would have preserved large elements of Roe). A shift of two seats (one if Roberts isn’t included) would change the balance of the Court on abortion. Two of the justices in the Dobbs majority – Alito and Thomas – are well into their seventies.
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