Abortion-rights supporters won a big victory on Tuesday in Kansas, but their conclusion seems to be that somehow this is a rebuke to Justice Samuel Alito and the Supreme Court. Far from it, the vote defeating a constitutional amendment to overturn a state Supreme Court ruling on abortion is a rousing vindication of Justice Alito’s majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

“The Kansas vote was a powerful reply to the Supreme Court,” proclaims Washington Post columnist David Von Drehle. John Harris of Politico writes, “So what does Alito think now, in the wake of Kansas voters resoundingly rejecting a proposal to remove protections for abortion rights from their state constitution?”