For generations, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded or upheld civil liberties, from freedom of the press in New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) to access to contraception in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) to gay rights in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) to interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia (1967). But when the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling was handed down on June 24 and Roe v. Wade was overturned after 49 years, the High Court's radical-right majority demonstrated that it had no problem rejecting precedent and rolling back civil liberties.
Moreover, Justice Clarence Thomas, in Dobbs, recommended that the High Court also "reconsider" Griswold, Lawrence and Obergefell. Civil libertarians fear that with socially conservative justices having attacked abortion rights, everything from gay rights to contraception is also in danger.
