1/ A federal judge suggested that the federal right to abortion might be protected by the Constitution’s 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said while the Supreme Court concluded that the 14th Amendment included no right to abortion, the question of whether the 13th Amendment provided a textual basis for the right to abortion went unexplored. In a pending criminal case against several anti-abortion activists, Kollar-Kotelly asked prosecutors and defense lawyers to address ”whether the scope of Dobbs is in fact confined to the Fourteenth Amendment” and “whether, if so, any other provision of the Constitution could confer a right to abortion as an original matter […] such that Dobbs may or may not be the final pronouncement on the issue, leaving an open question.” (Politico / CNBC / The Hill)
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2023/02/07/day-749/