During the Alito hearings in the Senate, Dick Durbin (Democrat from Illinois) said the following when Alito refused to state explicitly that Roe was "settled law":
"Many people will leave this hearing with a question as to whether or not you could be the deciding vote that would eliminate the legality of abortion."
Problem is: we *know* that Alito could not eliminate the legality of abortion because it is not conceivably a question that the the Supreme Court will decide. The question in Roe and other abortion cases has been whether state governments violate the Constitution when they restrict abortion, not whether abortion itself violates the Constitution.
Now the puzzling thing is: Durbin has a JD from Georgetown, so he should know better. Did he forget? Did he mislead? Did he simply want to dramatize the exchange? Did he mis-speak?
For what it's worth, the New York Times notes the error, NPR does not. I haven't checked others.
The Washington Post has the transcripts of the hearings on its website.
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