Justice Gorsuch Surgically Disassembles CBS Reporter’s Suggestion That Supreme Court Has ‘Ripped Away’ Rights

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch dissected CBS reporter Major Garrett’s claims that the Supreme Court was taking rights away from Americans by overturning “settled” cases like Roe v. Wade during an interview aired on Monday.

Gorsuch was one of the six justices who voted to uphold a Mississippi law in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022 that banned most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal in all 50 states. Garrett asked Gorsuch during the interview what he would say to critics of the court’s rulings, prompting the justice to respond by saying the Supreme Court was empowering Americans to make decisions for themselves. (RELATED: John Kennedy Says Justice Department ‘Got It Good And Hard’ In SCOTUS Immunity Decision)

“For those who would say, ‘But I feel something’s been ripped away from me,’ you would say?” Garrett asked Gorsuch.

“I would say that we’re taking it back to you. In a democracy, you’re in the driver’s seat. You’re the sovereign,” Gorsuch said. “Those famous three first words of the Constitution empower you. Do you really want me deciding everything for you?”

Gorsuch earlier told Garrett that the Supreme Court was not banning abortion but letting Americans decide the issue as opposed to the Supreme Court making the decision.

Just a master class schooling by Justice Neil Gorsuch when whacked from the left by CBS’s Major Garrett.

Gorusch: “I read the other day that…I agreed with Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson something like 45 percent of the time. That’s the court I know.”… pic.twitter.com/PdGR3IHlq6

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 5, 2024

“There are people who watch this right now and say I thought I understood what Roe v. Wade meant in our country,” Garrett told Gorsuch during the interview. “I thought I understood what affirmative action in college admission meant, and this court told me I didn’t understand what that meant, and I wrongly relied on things that I thought were settled. What would you say to those?”

“I would say those are deeply complex legal questions on which reasonable minds can, of course, and do disagree, and that when it comes to Roe v. Wade, for example, what did the court decide?” Gorsuch responded. “[It] decided that we the people should answer that question, not nine people sitting in Washington, D.C.”

Gorsuch also defended the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action in college admissions when pressed by Garrett.

“What did we decide?” Gorsuch said. “We decided that all people are created equal, that it’s not acceptable in this country to discriminate on the basis of race.”

CBS’s Major Garrett: “How about affirmative action?”

Justice Neil Gorsuch: “Much the same thing. What did we decide? We decided that all people are created equal, that it’s not acceptable in this country to discriminate on the basis of race.” pic.twitter.com/eLJQ42RxJc

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 5, 2024

Gorsuch also discussed his book, “Over-Ruled: The Human Toll Of Too Much Law,” during the interview, saying that an explosion of laws has caught up with ordinary Americans who didn’t mean any harm.

“I just saw so many cases where ordinary Americans — decent, hard-working Americans — were just trying to make their way in life,” Gorsuch told Garrett. “They weren’t trying to hurt anybody, and yet they were caught up in the legal system.”

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