Sen. Collins says ‘hostility’ to Roe would sway her vote
WASHINGTON — Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a moderate whose vote could prove decisive in filling the Supreme Court’s vacant seat, said Sunday she would not vote for a nominee who showed “hostility” toward Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.
“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.”
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 evenhandedness,” she added, referring to John G. Roberts Jr., the court’s chief justice.
The remarks appeared to edge beyond the position Collins staked out in conversations with reporters last week, when she made clear 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, RAlaska. 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 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 he had reduced that list to around five candidates, including two women.
In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” broadcast Sunday morning, Trump reiterated 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.