GOP/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Maine Republican whose vote could prove decisive in filling the Supreme Court’s vacant seat, said on Sunday [7-1-18] that she would not vote for a nominee who showed ‘hostility’ toward Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion…The remarks appeared to edge beyond the position that Ms. Collins staked out in conversations with reporters last week, when she made clear that she saw Roe v. Wade as a precedent that should not be overturned. She had not said explicitly that the view could sway her vote. Still, liberals dismissed her position as ‘flimsy.’ A longtime target for conservatives, abortion rights and the court’s liberal decision in Roe v. Wade have emerged as one of the major flash points in the fight over filling the seat left by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy when he retires this summer.”
–Nicholas Fandos and Emily Cochrane, “Susan Collins, Pivotal Moderate, Says ‘Hostility’ to Roe Would Sway Her Vote,” The New York Times online, June 1, 2018