Roe V. Wade Ruling Has An Unexpected Consequence For Clarence Thomas
In June, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that has protected access to abortion across the country since the 1970s (via NPR). Following the ruling, abortion legislation would be controlled by individual states, leading to outright bans in some states, while others have strictly limited access to the procedure within their borders.
Back in May, documents were leaked that showed the court was planning on reversing Roe v. Wade (per Politico). "We hold that Roe and Casey [Planned Parenthood v. Casey] must be overruled," Justice Samuel Alito wrote. "It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."
Following this shocking ruling, abortion rights activists across the country protested and spoke up against the ruling. Several Supreme Court justices caught backlash for their part in overturning Roe.
No member of the court got more criticism than Justice Clarence Thomas. Now, the impact of his actions is preventing him from following through with other career-related tasks.
Clarence Thomas will miss out on a teaching gig
When the Supreme Court announced the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas decided to take his opinion one step further. In favor of overturning the landmark ruling, Justice Thomas encouraged the court to take a look at other important rulings, including those that have made gay marriage and access to birth control legal across all 50 states (via Forbes).
Thomas was firm in his stance about giving other landmark Supreme Court rulings the same treatment as Roe, but now, it is causing him some unexpected backlash. It was recently announced that he will be skipping out on co-teaching a seminar course at George Washington University (per the New York Post).
The university recently announced he would be unable to co-teach the seminar course this fall. However, students were already attempting to prevent him from doing so prior, organizing a petition with over 11,000 signatures.
The petition read, "With the recent Supreme Court decision that has stripped the right to bodily autonomy of people with wombs, and with his explicit intention to further strip the rights of queer people and remove the ability for people to practice safe sex without fear of pregnancy, it is evident that the employment of Clarence Thomas at George Washington University is completely unacceptable."
The university still encouraged Thomas to teach the course, but he claimed that he is now unavailable to do so. However, the students behind the petition are confident they played a role in preventing him from stepping foot on their campus.