Justice John Kittredge, who wrote one of two dissenting opinions in January, forcefully disagreed saying, “We could never have a situation where a precedent of this court ties our hands indefinitely. That would infringe upon the plenary authority of the General Assembly to make policy decisions for us to revisit.”
He emphasized his point by referring to three egregious former U.S. Supreme Court cases that upheld slavery, segregation, and internment of Japanese citizens during World War II. “If we went back in history and looked at Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Korematsu, gosh, don’t we wish those had been overruled before the sunset those days?”
Another point hotly debated during arguments was how soon a woman knows she is pregnant. Assistant deputy Solicitor General Thomas Hydrick said, “Women can know as soon as seven to 10 days after conception” and he quoted abortion data from the Centers from Disease Control (CDC) documenting that 45 percent of all abortions in the United States occur by the sixth week of pregnancy. Pro-abortion
Chief Justice Donald Beatty disagreed saying there is not “one shred of evidence” in the record to support the argument. “Forty-five percent” he said, “isn’t 51 percent.”
The hearing lasted approximately an hour and fifteen minutes and can be viewed here or below.
