Why Didn’t Justice Amy Coney Barrett Write A Separate Opinion In Dobbs?

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That is telling. She probably didn’t want the attention.

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If I were a conservative, I would not want the only people on the court to be speaking for me to be Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito. I would want Amy Coney Barrett to write more. I think she does a better job of presenting what conservatives want, and she is not as interested in inflaming people as Thomas and Alito are.

— Professor Mary Ziegler of UC Davis Law, an expert on reproductive rights and U.S. conservatism, commenting in an interview with the ABA Journal, on the fact that Justice Amy Coney Barrett merely joined Justice Samuel Alito’s contentious majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, without writing a concurrence to explain her own views as the lone woman on the Supreme Court who was willing to overturn the constitutional reproductive rights that had been afforded to pregnant people under Roe v. Wade for nearly 50 years.

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Abortion, Amy Coney Barrett, Courts, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, Quote of the Day, Supreme Court