We at POGO were shaken by last week’s leaked draft opinion that would overrule Roe v. Wade. We are continuing to process this seismic news and considering what the implications of the opinion could be, including for privacy and for other long-established precedents that we believe are fundamental. I want to share with you some of what my team at The Constitution Project at POGO had to say on this issue. In last week’s edition of our newsletter, Sidebar, my colleagues and I analyzed what the Supreme Court’s draft ruling reveals about its troubling vision of the role of the Constitution: The core of our work has been to promote a reading of the Constitution that prioritizes people, something that the Supreme Court all too often fails to do. In our vision, the Constitution shields the American people from abuse and discrimination, empowers them to participate in democracy, and ensures that government institutions are accountable to them. The legal theory in the draft opinion is fundamentally at odds with this: It is a full-throated endorsement of the Constitution as a tool of regression. Its reach will go far beyond abortion and open the door for rolling back a host of rights that the Supreme Court doesn’t believe are “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.” Our country has a deeply rooted history and tradition of excluding many, even most, of its people from the Constitution’s protections. The list of fundamental rights that we take for granted now but were first recognized by the Supreme Court after 1950 is too long to do justice to in this newsletter. (Read on.) Read the complete edition of last week’s Sidebar on the POGO website and subscribe to receive the newsletter directly to your inbox every Thursday. We’ll be sharing our insights on this developing story there in the weeks to come.
 David Janovsky
Analyst, The Constitution Project
Project On Government Oversight | 
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