UC Law Dean: Roe v. Wade Reversal ‘Turns Back the Clock’ to When Women Were ‘Treated as Property’

David Faigman, Hastings College of the Law
UC Hastings

The chancellor and dean of the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, California, reacted to the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade on Friday by claiming that the ruling effectively “turns back the clock” to “when women did not have the right to vote” and were “treated as property,” adding, “I tremble for my granddaughters.”

“Today’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade is devastating on many levels,” Dean David Faigman proclaimed in an open letter, before claiming that women not being able to as easily kill their unborn children means the clock has been turned back to another century.

Abortion-rights activist Caroline Rhodes protests in front of the Supreme Court building following the announcement to the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling on June 25, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Court's decision in the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health case overturns the landmark 50-year-old Roe v Wade case, removing a federal right to an abortion. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

(Photo by Yasin Oztürk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

“This decision turns back the clock not just to 1973, but to a century when women did not have the right to vote and were, largely, treated as property,” Faigman wrote. “I tremble for my granddaughters.”

The dean then argued that “those with religious objections to abortion do not have the right to impose them on others,” before calling into question the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.

“As a dean and professor of constitutional law, this opinion — and, indeed, the composition of the Court itself, which is a product of political gerrymandering — raises basic questions regarding the legitimacy of the Court itself,” Faigman said.

On Friday, the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, holding in the Dobbs case that the Constitution does not include a right to abortion and returning the issue of abortion laws and regulations to state legislatures.

“On the eve of Pride weekend, Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion in Dobbs underscores the breadth of the potential challenges to other fundamental and hard-won rights, including marriage equality,” Faigman lamented in his letter.

Faigman concluded by pledging to use his role as the leader of one of California’s most prestigious law schools to help prepare future lawyers and policymakers to “grapple with the outcome of today’s decision.”

“UC Hastings is committed more than ever to its core mission to prepare diverse students to advance the rule of law and pursue justice,” he wrote. “Our students are the future lawyers and policymakers who will need to grapple with the outcome of today’s decision.”

Faigman is just one of the many members of academia having a public meltdown over the Supreme Court’s life-saving decision.

After the ruling, college and university professors took to social media, where they issued unhinged diatribes in response to the reality that not as many killings will transpire in a post-Roe America.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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