Morning Joe dug into the implications of the Supreme Court's imminent ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
"A potentially groundbreaking shift in American constitutional law, the Supreme Court appears poised to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. According to a leaked draft opinion published last night by Politico, a majority of the Supreme Court is prepared to overturn the right to abortion," Mika Brzezinski said.
Joe Scarborough talked about the "illegitimacy" of the current court.
"You know, the court has always been guided by the law, but it's also been keenly aware that it is the only unelected branch of American government. They needed to not appear to be openly contemptuous of public opinion. That would be especially true today, given the GOP's 'might makes right' approach to the sacking of Merrick Garland's nomination, or the elevation of Donald Trump's final pick.
"One more thing, look at this picture from Madeleine Albright's funeral. The five Democratic politicians on the front row won the most votes in the presidential elections of 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. Yet, a half century of constitutional rights supported by over 70% of Americans -- let me underline that again, because people lying to you on other channels will never say this: Over 70% of Americans support that constitutional right.
"It'll be swept away by the presidents not in this picture and the presidents who were outvoted in each one of those elections over the last three decades. Now, Americans will rightly conclude that their voices and their votes no longer matter. So what are the implications for the court, for the law, and for American democracy?"
Scarborough said 70% of Americans waking up this morning "is going to be, most likely, that this is a illegitimate decision by an illegitimate court."
Jon Meacham said the crisis of trust in institutions" has just become universal in a way that is pretty much the nightmare scenario, if you believe in the ultimate efficacy of the constitutional order to produce a more perfect union, right?"
"To protect the Jeffersonian assertion of equality. to protect the rule of law, for all its imperfections. the system has been worth defending for 250 years. Right now, if this draft decision, if the court were to go this far, you will have, as you were just saying, an extraordinary number of Americans believing that the system, in fact, cannot, is not capable of delivering justice, is not capable of reflecting the popular will, even through the constitutional prism. And I think that, you know, one of the great questions of the era, the great question of the era is, are you and I, are we in this decade, are we up to democracy? Are we commensurate to the task?
"I'm worried that we're entering the darkest period of that test. Because if you have any reservations about the system's capacity to deliver justice, they have just been affirmed," he concluded.
