A former senior counsel to President Donald Trump said the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade on Friday is the legacy of Trump’s first term.
Jenna Ellis told The Epoch Times in an interview on June 24 that Friday’s ruling on Roe v. Wade shows how Trump’s Supreme Court nominations and federal-judicial appointments will be the 45th president’s “most critical point and enduring legacy” in his first term and “will have a lasting impact.”
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent that struck down a swath of federal and state laws restricting abortion, on June 24. The ruling came in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision (court file 19-1392).
“I was able to call President Trump this morning and tell him from the bottom of my heart, ‘Thank you so much for having the courage to stand by each of these justices,’” Ellis said. “It was a hard-fought battle for each of them.”
“He stood by them. And he knew that they were the right people for the job. And without his courage, and his decision-making and appointing these justices, we wouldn’t be here as a country today,” she added.
“I told him: thank you so much for having the courage to stand firm for life, for liberty, and for our Constitution.”
45’s Legacy
Ellis said Roe v. Wade, a decision reflecting “judicial activism at its core,” could not have been overturned if Trump had not facilitated a conservative majority in the Supreme Court.
“The Dobbs case had been pending—in our American understanding—really, since Roe v. Wade was handed down, but the composition of the Supreme Court just couldn’t get there until President Donald Trump,” Ellis said.
During Trump’s presidency, the former president nominated Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. All three justices concurred in the highest court’s judgment with Justice Alito, who described Roe as “egregiously wrong and deeply damaging” to America and said that “the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.”
By Gary Bai
