The Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case is both smaller and larger than it might first appear.
Smaller Than It Seems
It’s smaller in the sense that in and of itself the decision bans precisely zero abortions. To be sure, you might not know that to hear President Biden, who said on June 24:
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States expressly took away a constitutional right from the American people that it already recognized. They didn’t limit it. They simply took it away. That’s never been done . . . but they did it.
Yet despite all the hyperventilating from Democrats, the left-wing media, and outrage-mongers, Dobbs merely returns the question of abortion to the states, leaving it for them to decide. So when Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said that Americans should “defy” the Dobbs ruling, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) responded coolly that there’s nothing to defy. That’s the genius of federalism, also known as states’ rights.




