Chicago City Wire

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot made a "call to arms" against the U.S. Supreme Court, which she suggested will soon attack her and other gays and lesbians, banning consensual sodomy and gay marriage.

She made the comment on Twitter late Monday evening.

"To my friends in the LGBTQ+ community—the Supreme Court is coming for us next. This moment has to be a call to arms," she wrote. "We will not surrender our rights without a fight—a fight to victory!"

Lightfoot made the comment as Antifa protestors marched to the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, author of a draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which was leaked to the public last week. They also protested at the homes of Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh over the weekend, seeking to intimidate them into changing their opinions.

Dobbs involves the constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi state law that bans abortion except in cases of medical emergencies or fetal abnormalities after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. Lower courts have so far prevented its enforcement.

Allowing the law would effectively overturn Roe v. Wade, which currently bars states from banning abortions pre-viability, generally believed to be around 24 weeks. If overturned, state legislatures  would be allowed to democratically pass their own laws limiting and regulating abortion.

In the draft, Alito explains how abortion was mostly unlawful in 1868 when the U.S. ratified the 14th Amendment, which guarantees Americans "equal protection under the law" and serves as the basis for the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a woman's right to abortion.

Alito writes in the draft that “a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions" and assets that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.”

He also insists in the draft that “nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion," which he says is “fundamentally different” than other rights. 

Regarding Supreme Court rulings allowing gay marriage and consensual sodomy, Alito argues Dobbs “does not undermine them in any way.”

Lightfoot has a history of publicly criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court when its members voice opinions she doesn't like.

In 2020, Lightfoot called Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas a "danger to our democracy" after he criticized the court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which in 2015 guaranteed gays a federal right to marry and barred states from democratically banning gay marriage.

Justices supporting Obergefell “read a right to same sex marriage" into the U.S. Constitution, “even though that right is found nowhere in the text." Thomas wrote.

The decision "enables courts and governments to brand religious adherents who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman as bigots."

Thomas believes states should regulate gay marriage, not the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lightfoot, 59, graduated from University of Chicago law school in 1989. She worked as an assistant U.S. Attorney before joining the law firm of Mayer Brown.