The public square was consumed Tuesday with speculation about the future of abortion in the United States. That's understandable, following the publication of a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade. For the moment, however, we're more concerned about the future of the Supreme Court itself.
The words "bomb," "bombshell" and "unprecedented" flew about the airwaves, referring both to the draft opinion and to the leak that made it public. Commentators dutifully repeated the caution that a draft is only a draft, subject to change. Then they implicitly threw such caution to the wind, offering theories and analyses about the effect of an overturned Roe v. Wade.
With the court's acknowledgment that the leaked document is an authentic draft, but not a decision, the temptation to address the reasoning in Justice Samuel Alito's text intensified. If his opinion stands as the considered view of a majority of the justices, the court will have opened itself to a flood of legitimate criticism. It will be the first time in history that the court has overturned a decision affirming the rights of an entire class of citizens. But that time, thankfully, is not yet.
