Collins, pivotal moderate, says 'hostility' to roe would sway her vote

In another interview Sunday, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the senator said such a decision “would mean to me their judicial philosophy did not include a respect for established decisions, established law.”

“And I believe that that is the very important fundamental tenet of our judicial system, which, as Chief Justice Roberts says, helps to promote stability and even handedness,” she added, referring to John G. Roberts Jr., the court’s chief justice.

The remarks appeared to edge beyond the position that Collins staked out in conversations with reporters last week, when she made clear that she saw Roe v. Wade as precedent that should not be overturned. She had not said explicitly that the view could sway her vote.

Still, liberals dismissed her position as “flimsy.” A longtime target for conservatives, abortion rights and the court’s liberal decision in Roe v. Wade have emerged as one of the major flash points in the fight over filling the seat left by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy when he retires this summer.

Collins, among the few remaining voices of centrism in the Republican Party, is one of two Republican senators who have supported abortion rights and, in the past, have shown themselves willing to break with their party. The other is Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. Because Republicans have only the narrowest of majorities in the Senate, their votes could sink or elevate whomever President Donald Trump nominates to fill the seat.

Murkowski, for her part, has said she will consider a nominee’s views on the abortion rights case, but that it alone would not be a litmus test for her choice.

Both Collins and Murkowski were among a small group of moderate Republicans and Democrats who met with Trump to discuss the pick at the White House last week. Collins said Sunday that she could not support some of the names on a list of 25 highly conservative jurists from which Trump has said he will choose. She said she urged the president to broaden his list.

“I think the president should not feel bound by that list and instead should seek out recommendations to ensure that he gets the best possible person,” she said on ABC.

Trump told reporters Friday that he had reduced that list to around five candidates, including two women.

In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that was broadcast Sunday morning, Trump reiterated that he was advised not to ask candidates for the open seat about their position on overturning the abortion rights case.

“They were all saying ‘don’t do that,'” he said, referencing advice he was given for the interview process.

But the president has said previously that he would seek to appoint judges that would roll back abortion rights. And the candidates included on his broader list were vetted by the conservative Federalist Society, suggesting that all the nominees are, at a minimum, not supportive of abortion rights.

He also hailed Justice Neil Gorsuch, his first Supreme Court appointee, who sided with the conservative majority on several major closely decided cases this term.

“Honestly, if the Democrats would have won the election, first of all, you would have had a lot different — if you look at the last four decisions in the Supreme Court at 5-4, they would have all been reversed,” he said. “As president — I mean obviously outside of war and peace — the biggest decision you can make is the selection of a Supreme Court justice.”

Collins said she believed that neither Roberts nor Gorsuch, whom she voted to confirm to the court last year, would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Collins said Gorsuch, who was an author of a book on judicial precedents, “understands how important a principle that is in our judicial system.”

Pressed to account for the court’s recent decisions overturning precedent in other cases, Collins said she viewed the abortion rights case as long-settled law not subject to the same revision.

Liberals leading the charge against Trump’s potential picks quickly dismissed Collins’ remarks, suggesting that the senator was either being hoodwinked or knowingly obfuscating her position. They pointed to court decisions as recently as last week — when the justices overturned a four-decade-old precedent in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to deal a blow to organized labor — in which it reversed earlier rulings.

“This proves how flimsy Collins’ pro-Roe position is,” Brian Fallon, a longtime Democratic operative whose organization, Demand Justice, is helping organize opposition to potential nominees, wrote on Twitter on Sunday morning, referring to Collins’ comments on Gorsuch. “She is perfectly happy to let herself be suckered based on phony assurances about ‘precedent.'”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said Collins and Murkowski should be highly skeptical of assurances about precedent, particularly in the confirmation process, when nominees frequently decline to speculate on potential rulings.

“Justice Gorsuch told her that he would respect precedent, and yet he has voted against precedent just this week with the Janus case,” Duckworth said on “State of the Union.” “If anything, this president, this administration is all about overturning precedents.”

Conservative groups and Republican lawmakers have sought to play down individual cases or issues that could prove divisive in the confirmation process, arguing more broadly that Trump has the right to appoint a conservative justice of his choosing.

Leonard Leo, a conservative lawyer who advised Trump on his appointment of Gorsuch, said earlier Sunday that overturning Roe v. Wade was not a significant part of deciding who would fill the vacancy, adding that the case is a “major precedent in America.”

“I don’t think at the end of the day it’s about Roe v. Wade,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s about having judges on the court who are going to interpret the Constitution the way it’s written. And part of interpreting the Constitution is taking into account major precedents, and that’s going to happen.”

Trump, who spent part of his weekend at his Bedminster golf resort in New Jersey conferring with Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, about his pick for the vacancy, emphasized that he would pick a judge that would uphold the court’s slim 5-4 conservative majority.

“I’m going to pick somebody who’s outstanding,” he said, adding that he told Kennedy, “I’ll do it in your honor.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Collins, pivotal moderate, says 'hostility' to roe would sway her vote

“A candidate for this important position who would overturn Roe v. Wade would not be acceptable to me, because that would indicate an activist agenda that I don’t want to see a judge have,” Collins said on ABC’s “This Week.”

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