Protesters are planning to descend on the street where Justice Clarence Thomas lives, after the Supreme Court on Friday moved to overturn Roe v. Wade denying women the right to an abortion.
In a separate opinion, Thomas said the same reasoning could be used to target laws protecting gay marriage and contraception.
Thomas has become a particular target of protesters after it emerged that his wife had pushed to help overturn the result of the 2020 election result and keep President Donald Trump in power.
Protesters in Washington, D.C., shared arrangements to carpool together on Friday evening.
‘Enraged? Devastated? Pissed the f*** off? So are we,’ tweeted Our Rights DC.
Tensions over abortion have spiraled ever since a draft opinion was leaked last month, signaling that the court was about to overturn protections.
Protesters plan to target the street where Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni live
Thomas published an opinion calling for the Supreme Court to target a string of other laws
President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the White House’s Cross Hall on Friday. He condemned the ruling but urged protesters to remain peaceful
An armed man was arrested on June 8 outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and charged with attempted murder.
As he condemned the court’s decision on Friday, President Joe Biden urged protesters to remain peaceful.
‘I call on everyone no matter how deeply they care about this decision to keep all protests peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, peaceful,’ he said.
‘No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable.
‘Threats and intimidation are not speech. We must stand against violence in any form, regardless of your rationale.’
Earlier the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn abortion rights.
‘The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,’ the court said in its opinion.
Protesters quickly gathered outside the Supreme Court building.
In a concurring opinion, Thomas said the justices now should ‘should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell’ – three cases that use similar reasoning to Roe v. Wade.
Those rulings codify rights to contraception access, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.
None of the other conservatives joined his opinion, however.
A woman cries outside the Supreme Court Friday morning after the court rules that the ‘Constitution does not confer a right to abortion’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared outside the Supreme Court among the crowds in the aftermath of the Supreme Court releasing the Dobbs decision that ends abortion protections
However, Biden himself warned of the danger to other rights when the draft opinion was leaked.
‘If the rationale of the decision as released were to be sustained, a whole range of rights are in question. A whole range of rights,’ he said at the time.
‘And the idea [that] we’re letting the states make those decisions, localities make those decisions, would be a fundamental shift in what we’ve done.’
Democrats have repeatedly called for Thomas to step down from the court as the extent of his wife’s involvement in the effort to overturn the 2020 election result have emerged.
The House January 6 committee has reportedly obtained emails between Ginni Thomas as John Eastman, who devised a plan for Vice President Mike Pence to prevent the certification of Biden’s 2020 victory.
It suggests Thomas’ involvement in the election plot was more extensive than previously known.
Democrats stepped up their calls for Justice Clarence Thomas to resign from the Supreme Court or recuse himself from election-related cases after it emerged that his wife, Ginni (pictured with her husband) was in touch with a key Trump adviser
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) said it made her husband’s position untenable.
‘Public confidence in our nation’s highest court is at its lowest levels in generations,’ he said.
‘The American people rightly question whether rightwing jurists in our federal courts can adjudicate the law impartially.
‘Over the last few years, we have become numb to bad acts by powerful actors, but Clarence and Ginni Thomas have participated in one of the worst breaches of trust ever seen in our court system.’
Justice Thomas, he said, was not a ‘neutral actor’ but instead a ‘corrupt jurist.’
‘Clarence Thomas should have dignity and final respect for our democracy and resign.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk