Boise, Idaho – Governor Brad Little signed on to an amicus brief today related to a case before the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS), seeking to protect the lives of preborn babies and restore state sovereignty.

“Protecting the lives of preborn babies has always been and will continue to be a priority of mine. I am also a defender of state sovereignty. My decision to join this lawsuit to protect lives and states’ rights reflects my conservative approach to constitutional interpretation. The ‘right’ to an abortion is a judicial creation. It is not a right expressed in the U.S. Constitution. I am asking the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify there is no constitutional right to an abortion and restore state sovereignty by allowing states to regulate all abortions consistent with the principles of democratic self-governance,” Governor Little said.

As of today, the governors of Idaho, Montana, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Iowa, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri, and Oklahoma have joined a Governors’ amicus brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The case centers around a 2018 Mississippi law prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks except in medical emergencies or severe fetal abnormality. Lower courts held that Mississippi’s law violated the holdings in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), in which non-elected justices recognized a right to abortion exists contrary to the text and original meaning of the Constitution.

The Governors’ amicus brief supports the State of Mississippi’s cert petition, which SCOTUS accepted, to determine whether “all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.”

The Governors’ amicus brief requests SCOTUS overrule Roe and Casey because there is no constitutional right to an abortion and, according to the principle of federalism, rights not granted in the U.S. Constitution should be entrusted to states to control.

SCOTUS is expected to hear the case in the fall.

The Governors’ amicus brief can be found here.

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden joined 17 other attorneys general in a similar amicus brief earlier this year.

Governor Little also signed the “Fetal Heartbeat Bill” into law in April to protect the lives of preborn babies.

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