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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