Abortion opponents are starting to worry Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh isn't the ally they w

[Polybius]

Abortion opponents are starting to worry Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh isn’t the ally they were expecting

Justice Brett Kavanaugh has only been on the bench for two months, but a controversial decision announced this week has abortion opponents starting to worry that he may not be the ally on the high court that they expected.

On Monday, the court announced that it would not review two lower court decisions that temporarily banned Louisiana and Kansas from cutting Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding. While three of the court’s conservatives voted to take up the cases, Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts declined to join them, ensuring the cases would not receive the necessary four votes for review.

Despite a claim of “vindication” from Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who voted to confirm Kavanaugh after he assured her that he viewed the court’s abortion precedents as settled law, progressives have cautioned against reading too much into Kavanaugh’s vote.

The question the cases presented was not about the legality of abortion, but instead over whether individuals have a right to challenge a state’s determination that a Medicaid provider is “qualified.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/12/brett-kavanaugh-may-not-be-solid-ally-abortion-opponents-were-expecting.html

Note: I thought he was pro-Roe since the hearings, his answers worried Rick Santorum in an interview. I also thought Gorsuch was anti-Roe from the hearings. So far it seems that I may be right...

[NanceGreggs]

1. Given the outcry ...

... over Kavanaugh's nomination and the ensuing confirmation process, I wondered whether he would wind up rendering decisions that seemed to go against the GOP's agenda, in order to make himself look like an independent jurist not influenced by party politics.

He has a LOT to prove in terms of not being seen as Trump's lackey - which everyone knows is how he wound up where he is in the first place.

In addition, there have been rumours that the Dems will investigate him fully, once they take the House in January - a possibility that I've no doubt is influencing how he conducts himself on the SCOTUS bench.

[SCantiGOP]

2. In general, for more than 200 years

The actions of the court have been to preserve and expand liberties. They don’t often roll them back.

Let’s hope that supposition is correct, and that it continues.

[drmeow]

3. I still want him off the court eom

[Polybius]

5. Yes, but let's wait until we have a Democratic President

If he goes now, Trump might nominate another Gorsuch.

[allgood33]

4. May they quiver in their boots.

[brewens]

6. Wouldn't it be something that even given his past as a sexual assaulter, and blackout drunk

with a gambling problem, along with sleaze right-wing operative, that he really wants to be a good justice. Holy smocks! What if he does just call balls and strikes and is middle of the road? I can't see it but he could turn. Now he's hit the big time and they don't control him like they think.

[kimbutgar]

7. Maybe he's paid for some abortions!

[Volaris]

8. This, but I think Roberts is gonna keep him on a short leash for a while,

At least on the 'contentious' stuff...for his own good AND the good of the court as Roberts sees it.

[Polybius]

9. He can still be a right-wing jerkoff and be pro-Roe

Even some Nazis are pro-choice (I am in no way implying that he's a Nazi, BTW). Or maybe he really does believe in president. Who knows...

[AwakeAtLast]

10. College party boys

Will never vote anti-choice.

[Imperialism Inc.]

11. Erm, I gotta ask. Did you read the excerpt you posted?

The question the cases presented was not about the legality of abortion, but instead over whether individuals have a right to challenge a state’s determination that a Medicaid provider is “qualified.”

So why would you post that and then opine as if the cases were to do with the central issue? Anyway, he is definitely not pro-Roe. He may be (it is yet to be seen) pro-"pretend to respect precedent while rendering the right moot in practice" though. That has been the approach of the conservatives on the court for a while. Roe will technically stand but they will allow any and all restrictions on the right to an abortion up to and including those that make it impossible to get one in practice.