In Roe decision, Justice Clarence Thomas invites new legal challenges to contraception and same-sex marriage rights

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his chambers at the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington on June 6, 2016. (Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

Tucked inside the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Friday that overturned the long-held constitutional protection for abortion was a concurring opinion from conservative Justice Clarence Thomas. In it, he pushed the court to revisit cases that have already been decided related to contraception and same-sex marriage.

Fueling already heightened anxieties from women and LGBTQ groups that the end of Roe could be the tip of the iceberg, Thomas wrote that “in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents.”