Democrats blame Dobbs decision on 'corrupt, extremist' justices to mark year since Supreme Court ruling

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Democrats Pursue Political Control of the Supreme Court

'Ethics' is the latest weapon against the Court's independence.

House Democrats attacked the Supreme Court justices who overturned federal abortion protections as "corrupt" and "extremist" in a press conference marking one year since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health ruling was handed down.

"First of all, why we're here today – because last June, we know that a handful of corrupt, extremist, hypocritical justices argued that the issue of abortion should be left to the states to decide," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who is running for Senate. "If the GOP cared about letting people decide their stance on abortion for themselves, they wouldn't have banned the option for half the country."

The court's conservative majority voted 5-4 to overturn the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade last June, while voting 6-3 to uphold the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban at issue in Dobbs.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called last year's ruling "one of the most egregious and offensive decisions that the Supreme Court has ever rendered."

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks during a Pro-Choice Caucus event in Cannon Buildings Speaker Nancy Pelosi Caucus Room marking one year since the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision on Friday, June 23, 2023

"Brown v Board of Education is in the Supreme Court. Hall of Fame. The Dobbs decision is in the Supreme Court Hall of Shame," Jeffries said, referencing the case decided in 1954 which led to desegregation in schools. "Because unlike other enlightened decisions that the Supreme Court has reached throughout the years, which enhanced freedom, the Dobbs decision restricted and limited and undermined freedom for women all across America."

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Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., who helped lead Democrats' effort to codify abortion protections into law with the Women's Health Protection Act, took a swing at the court's reputation, which has faced heightened scrutiny over the last year as it's considered various hot-button issues.

The Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections on Friday, June 24, 2022. ( AP Photo/Steve Helber)

"Extreme far right politicians and judges, and now the MAGA movement, want to make this country one of forced birth. They've captured the Supreme Court, which faces a legitimacy crisis we've never experienced in our lifetimes," Chu said. 

Rep. Lois Frankel, D-N.Y., called it "Donald Trump's Supreme Court."

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Democrats have seized on abortion as a core campaign issue in the wake of the June 2022 ruling. Less than six months later in the midterm elections, they defied expectations by keeping the Senate and blunted what was expected to be a "red wave" in the House of Representatives. 

These are the nine justices who weighed in on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File))

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It has also turned the apolitical Supreme Court into a political lightening rod, revamping calls from the left to expand the bench in a bid to even out the current conservative supermajority.

Currently, there are 17 states plus Washington, D.C., that have laws protecting abortion. Limits or bans exist in 24 states.