Kavanaugh Praised Dissent to Landmark Abortion Rights Ruling

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh last year praised a dissenting opinion in the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights case, crediting it with helping curb the “free-wheeling judicial creation” of constitutional rights.

In a speech before the American Enterprise Institute, Kavanaugh stopped short of saying that the 1973 Roe decision was wrong or that it should be overturned. But he praised the reasoning of then-Justice William Rehnquist’s dissent, saying it led to a 1997 ruling that said the Constitution doesn’t protect a right to assisted suicide.

That latter ruling, also written by Rehnquist, “stands to this day as an ...