MAY 19 • 2022 | 21

weeks. About half of the abor-
tions performed in the first 10
weeks are by means of medica-
tion, not surgery.
The question is: Because the
federal government allows this
medication, would this preempt
a state law prohibiting or reg-
ulating the use of medication
abortions?
Medication is under the
auspices of the federal gov-
ernment, and the government
could allow mailing this med-
ication to a woman, even to a
state that forbids abortion.
But the interesting thing is,
what else is Alito going to say
in the final opinion? It could
be possible that if he wants to
show other options, he could
talk about that. He could say
the federal government con-
trols medication, and states
can’t prohibit the use of medi-
cation, but I don’t think he will.

COULD OVERULING ROE
AFFECT OTHER NEWLY
WON PRIVACY RIGHTS?
It’s a fact that since Justice
Alito was assigned to write
this draft opinion that means
that the majority, and I expect
five justices, will overrule Roe
v Wade. In the draft, he tries
to say this ruling is limited
to abortion — that it does
not affect marriage for same-
sex couples or anything else.
Although some commentators
say you can’t believe it, I think
you have to take it at its word.

WILL THE ABORTION
ISSUE HAVE POLITICAL
IMPACT?
Maybe yes, maybe no. Will
this motivate white suburban
women and young people to
register to vote and then vote
for Democrats?
Congress has the power
under the Interstate

Commerce Clause to provide
for abortion. And the rationale
is if women can’t get abortions
in one state, they will go to
other states — and that comes
within Congress’ authority. So,
Congress clearly has the power
to do this, but the Democrats
have to win, and then there’ll
be an issue of overcoming the
filibuster.
And then if the Democrats
do win, you’re going to have
proposals to add four more
justices to the Supreme
Court. There’s nothing in the
Constitution that says it has
to be nine justices. Sometime
after the Civil War, there was
10 for a period of time. So, as
you can see, there are multiple
dimensions to this.

HOW DO YOU FEEL
ABOUT THE FACT THAT
SOMEONE RELEASED
THIS DRAFT EARLY?
This has never happened
before. Apparently, the draft
was circulated in February,
right after the argument
because of the practice to take
a vote — and you have a 5-4
vote, and the chief justice could
assign the opinion to Alito.
But clearly, it’s not going to
change the vote. The justices
are going to dig in. I mean, I
think you have a conservative
majority on the court saying,
“We’re going to overrule Roe v
Wade, period. And we’re not
going to change our mind on
that.
”
The question is, what is the
final opinion going to look
like? And we won’t know that
until the end of June. Until
then, we’re all doing a lot of
speculation.

THANK YOU, PROFESSOR.
I’ve been at this issue for a
long, long time.

248-894-0702

RYAN STONE

VP of Residential Lending

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