Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion spurs speculation about the future of same-sex marriage

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

49% : In considering whether to repeal the national right to same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court would also take into account that more than 500,000 couples in the United States rely on it, said Cliff Rosky, a law professor at the University of Utah with an expertise in LGBTQ and constitutional law.
47% : No one can be certain how the justices would approach a same-sex marriage case until one is put before them.
45% : Katie Eyer, a professor at Rutgers University with expertise in anti-discrimination law, said Alito's draft opinion relies on a narrow interpretation of what constitutes a fundamental right - the same question at issue in Obergefell.
41% : Some say the draft opinion in the abortion case provides a road map for the court to hold that same-sex marriage is not a fundamental right, while others argue that there is no public appetite for putting that issue before the court.
41% : But Eyer said public opinion in the United States is so strongly in favor of same-sex marriage - 61% percent, as of 2019 - that she doubts the court has an appetite for revisiting the issue.
41% : He also pointed to Alito's comments in the draft opinion - joined by four other Republican-appointed justices - that abortion is different from other rights.
40% :Other legal experts see the destruction of the right to same-sex marriage as unlikely.
39% : "We emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right," Alito wrote.
38% : "Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion."
37% : As a result, Woods said, advocates who oppose same-sex marriage could use Alito's logic as guidance for new lawsuits attempting to overturn Obergefell.
36% :Jordan Woods, faculty director of the LGBTQ Law & Policy Program at the University of Arkansas, said Alito's logic in the draft opinion largely mirrors his dissent in Obergefell v. Hodges, which established the right to same-sex marriage in 2015.
35% :Legal experts are divided on whether the right to same-sex marriage is actually in danger.
31% :The nation's courts also have not experienced the same kinds of attempts to repeal the right to same-sex marriage as it has with abortion, NeJaime said.
30% : They also point out that Alito, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, explicitly stated in the draft opinion that his reasoning was not meant to apply to any rights besides abortion.
29% : WASHINGTON -- A leaked draft opinion suggesting that the Supreme Court will eradicate the national right to abortion has set off a wave of conjecture that the justices could also roll back the right to same-sex marriage, erasing decades of activism by the LGBTQ community.
26% : The court's conservative justices are more likely to be persuaded by an argument that people rely on the right to same-sex marriage than they are on a contention that people rely on abortion, Rosky added.
23% :Alito's statements in the draft opinion that the ruling only applies to abortion is another reason to think the court is not necessarily interested in repealing the right to same-sex marriage, said Douglas NeJaime, a professor at Yale Law School with expertise in sexuality and constitutional law.
15% : Alito differentiated between Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that established a right to abortion, and cases involving same-sex marriage, contraception and sexual relations, saying abortion is "fundamentally different" because it destroys "fetal life."

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