June 28, 2022

Expert commentary on US Supreme Court decisions: restrictions on women’s right to abortion, expansion of religious freedom and access to guns

Decisions the result of decades long plan to remake American society by political and religious conservatives

Associate Professor Markus Wagner, an expert in international and constitutional law, is available for interview regarding the recent highly significant decisions by the US Supreme Court on abortion rights, religious freedom and access to guns:

“Over the last week, the US Supreme Court has handed down three important and radical decisions. It reduced the right of women to choose whether to have an abortion in Dobbs v Jackson. One day later, it expanded the right to bear arms in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen. On Monday, it expanded the freedom of religion to school settings in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.

“What unites these decisions is the reliance on what the justices in the majority believe is the will of the founding fathers. Rather than making decisions on the basis of the US Constitution, the Supreme Court is advancing nakedly political viewpoints.

“All three decisions constitute a key moment in the decades long plan by legal and political conservatives to remake US society. They are the result of careful planning and decisive political manoeuvres to install justices that have delivered what they were selected to do.

“There are dangerous institutional and societal ramifications. Using the Supreme Court as a means to deliver outcomes that a party is unable to achieve politically runs the risk of delegitimising the careful balance of power that has characterised successful democracies.”

Professor Wagner is Director of the Transnational Law and Policy Centre at the University of Wollongong. His research and teaching is in the areas of international law, constitutional law and comparative law. 

UOW academics exercise academic freedom by providing expert commentary, opinion and analysis on a range of ongoing social issues and current affairs. This expert commentary reflects the views of those individual academics and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the University of Wollongong.