Senator Hawley will only approve SCOTUS nominees with record of opposing Roe v. Wade

Senator Josh Hawley told the Washington Post that he only will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominees who have been on record as opposing the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.

The Missouri Republican said that a nominee will be eligible to secure his approval only if they disagree with the high court's 1973 abortion decision. 

“I will vote only for those Supreme Court nominees who have explicitly acknowledged that Roe v. Wade is wrongly decided,” Hawley told the news outlet. “By explicitly acknowledged, I mean on the record and before they were nominated.”

“I don’t want private assurances from candidates," Hawley told the Post. "I don’t want to hear about their personal views, one way or another. I’m not looking for forecasts about how they may vote in the future or predications. I don’t want any of that. I want to see on the record, as part of their record, that they have acknowledged in some forum that Roe v. Wade, as a legal matter, is wrongly decided."

“Roe is central to judicial philosophy. Roe is and was an unbridled act of judicial imperialism. It marks the point the modern Supreme Court said, ‘You know, we don’t have to follow the Constitution. We won’t even pretend to try.’ ” he said.

The senator said that he will apply this litmus test regardless of who puts forward a nominee. 

“This standard, for me, applies to Supreme Court nominees, whether they’re a sitting judge or whatever,” he said. “If there is no indication in their record that at any time they have acknowledged that Roe was wrong at the time it was decided, then I’m not going to vote for them — and I don’t care who nominates them.”