Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf
Page Number: 80.0

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

19 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

our abortion jurisprudence remains in a state of utter en-
tropy.  Since the Court decided Roe, Members of this Court 
have decried the unworkability of our abortion case law and 
repeatedly called for course corrections of varying degrees.
See, e.g., 410 U. S., at 171–178 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting); 
Doe v. Bolton, 410 U. S. 179, 221–223 (1973) (White, J., dis-
senting);  Akron  v.  Akron  Center  for  Reproductive  Health, 
Inc., 462 U. S. 416, 452–466 (1983) (O’Connor, J., dissent-
ing); Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and 
Gynecologists, 476 U. S. 747, 785–797 (1986) (White, J., dis-
senting); Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U. S. 
490, 532–537 (1989) (Scalia, J., concurring in part and con-
curring  in  judgment);  Casey,  505  U. S.,  at  944–966 
(Rehnquist, C. J., concurring in judgment in part and dis-
senting in part); id., at 979–1002 (Scalia, J., concurring in 
judgment  in  part  and  dissenting  in  part);  Stenberg,  530 
U. S.,  at  953–956  (Scalia,  J.,  dissenting);  id.,  at  980–983 
(THOMAS, J., dissenting); Whole Woman’s Health, 579 U. S., 
at ___–___ (THOMAS, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 5–11).  In 
Casey, the majority claimed to clarify this “jurisprudence of 
doubt,” 505 U. S., at 844, but our decisions in the decades 
since then have only demonstrated the folly of that asser-
tion, see Stenberg, 530 U. S., at 953–956 (Scalia, J., dissent-
ing);  id.,  at  960–979  (Kennedy,  J.,  dissenting);  Whole 
Woman’s Health, supra, at ___–___ (THOMAS, J., dissenting)
(slip op., at 5–11).  They serve as further evidence that this
Court’s  abortion  jurisprudence  has  failed  to  deliver  the 
“ ‘principled and intelligible’ ” development of the law that 
stare  decisis  purports  to  secure.  Ante,  at  3  (opinion  of
ROBERTS, C. J.) (quoting Vasquez v. Hillery, 474 U. S. 254, 
265 (1986)).

THE CHIEF JUSTICE advocates for a Burkean approach to 
the  law  that  favors  adherence  to  “ ‘the  general  bank  and 
capital  of  nations  and  of  ages.’ ”    Ante,  at  3  (quoting  3  E. 
Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France 110 (1790)). 
But such adherence to precedent was conspicuously absent