DNC Chair Attacks ‘Illegitimate’ Supreme Court over Ruling Overturning Roe

Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Jaime Harrison claimed the Supreme Court is “illegitimate” on Friday after the Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion. 

Harrison responded to the Court’s decision in a tweet saying, “I’m overwhelmed with anger and pain. This illegitimate Supreme Court filled with political extremists just struck a blow to American freedom.”

“These folks won’t just stop at this right,” he added. “So with everything we got & all that we are- each of us  must end this tyranny on our rights!”

Harrison again claimed the Court is “illegitimate” in response to a tweet from Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who wrote Friday that the decision was a “long overdue constitutional correction allowing for elected officials in the states to decide issues of life.”

Harrison quote tweeted Graham’s post saying, “It isn’t up to you, this illegitimate court, or a bunch of state elected officials to decide what happens to a woman’s body … that choice belongs to a woman and no one else! Period!!!

While Harrison did not explain what makes the Court “illegitimate,” progressives have leveled the charge against the Court since Republicans refused to hold a confirmation hearing for former President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland in 2016. GOP leaders argued then that it would not be in the interest of Americans to appoint a justice in an election year.

Democrats grew particularly incensed in 2020, when Republicans chose to move forward with confirmation hearings for Justice Amy Coney Barrett just weeks before the presidential election.

Barrett’s confirmation created a 6-3 conservative majority on the Court. 

The Court issued a 6-3 decision on Friday upholding a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks.

Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the majority opinion, was joined in upholding the Mississippi law by Justices Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts. However, Roberts split from the 5-4 majority on overturning Roe. He explained in a concurring opinion that he would have taken a “more measured course” stopping short of overturning Roe altogether, but agreed that the Mississippi abortion ban should stand.

The Court’s 5-4 decision returns the question of abortion to the states.

“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote for the majority.

Harrison is just one of many Democrats who spoke out against the ruling on Friday.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) wrote on Twitter that “Today is one of the darkest days our country has ever seen.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) accused Republicans of seeking “to punish and control women” and said Democrats “will keep fighting ferociously to enshrine Roe v. Wade into law.”

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