Fears of SCOTUS reeling in other established rights not unfounded, Dillard professor says

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Concerns of many that the US Supreme Court might be emboldened to roll back other established rights -- such as the right to contraceptives or of same-sex couples to wed -- are not unfounded in the wake of Friday’s momentous opinion overturning federal abortion protections, a Dillard University professor said.

“I think they have a right to be worried, now that the precedent has been set that the Supreme Court could actually come after rights, could actually take rights away,” Dr. Robert Collins, a public policy professor at Dillard, told Fox 8 in an exclusive interview Sunday (June 26).

“I think they need to be worried, because it’s never happened before, and now it’s happened. So I think they should be worried.”

Collins said such concerns have to be taken seriously, particularly in a divisive climate in which conservatives have established a powerful 6-3 majority on the nation’s high court.

“In the history of landmark Supreme Court decisions, every other decision in history has expanded rights, even the conservative decisions,” Collins said. “This is the first decision in the history of the Supreme Court that has actually contracted rights, taken rights away.”

Friday’s opinion, though anticipated for several weeks after the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s majority draft, still generated shockwaves across the nation and sparked numerous protests and social media arguments.

Health educator Dr. Eric Griggs warned that no matter which side of the abortion issue one supports, it can be important for mental and physical health to step back and decompress from the emotionally wrought debate.

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