Sorting fact from fiction in Democratic reactions to Supreme Court leak

Democrats reacted emotionally and aggressively to a leak Monday evening of a draft Supreme Court opinion that suggested a majority of justices are seriously considering overturning Roe v. Wade and returning the question of abortion to the states.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) warned that the Supreme Court will move next to strip away same-sex marriage and civil rights.

“They will not stop here,” cautioned Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), referring to the conservative majority on the bench.

And President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the decision, if finalized, means “every other decision relating to the notion of privacy is thrown into question.”

The draft opinion focuses specifically on how justices structured the 1973 majority opinion in Roe, however.

Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the draft opinion that leaked to Politico, noted that the lines the court drew in Roe — allowing states to ban abortions after so-called viability, or the point at which a baby can survive on its own outside the womb — were arbitrary and not the result of proper constitutional analysis.