June 26 (UPI) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday said that members of the Supreme Court who misled Congress about their intentions to overturn Roe vs. Wade should face consequences including possible impeachment.
Appearing on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., cited comments from Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and Susan Collins, R-Maine, that “several Supreme Court Justices misled them” about their stance on Roe vs. Wade during their confirmation hearings and the lead-up to their confirmation.
“There must be consequences for such a deeply destabilizing action and a hostile takeover of our democratic institutions,” she said, describing a “crisis of legitimacy” in the high court.
“What makes it particularly dangerous is that it sends a blaring signal to all future nominees that they can now lie to duly elected members of the United States Senate in order to secure Supreme Court confirmations and seats on the Supreme Court,” she continued.
Ocasio-Cortez also said that Justice Clarence Thomas violated federal law by not disclosing income from political organizations and should have recused himself from cases representing “very deep violations of conflict of interest” due to his and his wife’s conservative activism.
She said that both offenses as well as lying under oath are “impeachable offenses.”
“I believe that this is something that should be taken very seriously considered, including by senators like Joe Manchin and Susan Collins,” she said.
The Supreme Court’s decision Friday set off a series of so-called “trigger laws” in which abortion would be outlawed in 13 states, immediately or shortly after the landmark 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade was overturned.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Sunday defended her state’s law, which allows abortion only when needed to protect the life of the mother, and provides no exception in cases of incest and rape, saying that one tragedy is not “a reason to have another tragedy occur.”
“I believe every life is precious … And we know so much more using technology and science than we did even 10, 15 years ago about what these babies go through, the pain they feel in the womb and will continue to make sure that those lives are protected,” she told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
Noem added that South Dakota would also invest in resources for women who will now be required to carry their pregnancies to term including mental health counseling and family services.
“I would prefer that we continue to make sure we go forward and that we’re putting resources in front of these women and walking alongside them, getting them health care, the care, the mental health counseling and services that they should need to make sure that we can continue to support them and build stronger families far into the future as well,” she said.
Some states, such as California and Minnesota issued orders protecting women’s rights in response to the decision and the laws that went into effect throughout the nation.
Friday’s decision also launched protests throughout the nation that continued into the weekend.
In Rhode Island, Democratic state Senate candidate Jennifer Rourke, shared video to social media, which she said showed her Republican opponent Jeann Lugo, an off-duty police officer, punching her in the face during a protest in the state on Saturday.
“Last night, after speaking at our Roe rally, my Republican opponent — a police officer — violently attacked me,” Rourke wrote alongside the video. “This is what it is to be a Black woman running for office. I won’t give up.”
Rourke told the Providence Journal that she is also seeking to press charges for assault.
Lugo, a three-year veteran of the Providence police department, has been placed under administrative leave and is under criminal investigation, Lindsay Lague, a Rhode Island Public Safety spokeswoman told The Washington Post.
In a Twitter post, Lugo wrote that he will “not be running for any office this fall,” before appearing to close his account.
Before announcing he was dropping out of the race, he told The Washington Post that he found himself “in a situation that no individual should see themselves.”
“I stepped in to protect someone that a group of agitators was attacking,” he wrote. “At this moment, there’s a pending internal investigation and as the facts of the incident come to light, I request that my family and I have privacy.”
