I think it quite possible that the Chief Justice will vote with the three Democrats to preserve ROE.

[Atticus]

Is there any reasonable chance that one of the Trump appointees---each of which agreed that ROE v WADE was "settled law"---may join him and save ROE?

[dchill]

1. Now that they're in a position to do it...

... they'll come down on the side of "unsettled law."

[Tomconroy]

2. What's his name, the guy who likes beer, said something

like Roe is a super prescedent. Who knows?

[Claustrum]

3. Personally, I don't think so.

Republicans wanted to get rid of it and campaigned on getting rid of it by giving them the justices. They went through so much to get there. If they don't deliver, I don't know what the backlash would be like for them.

If it's a 5-4 court, they can say the moderate sided with democrats. But it's a 6-3 court, 2 of them will need to switch.

Are we in a stage we believe what they said in the hearing, especially the beer guy?

There is no way the federalist society would select those 3 to recommend to Trump without knowing how they will vote on RoW.

[jimfields33]

4. Gorsuch may as well.

I really doubt the Supreme Court want this to be the focus on this years docket. I think they’d rather it quietly go away and keep as is.

[Amishman]

7. Gorsuch is possible, as is Kavanaugh

Gorsuch has a bit of a libertarian streak and might side with women's rights because of it.

Kavanaugh seems to keep an eye on the bigger political picture the way Roberts does, and might opt for either a very narrow ruling or siding against the conservatives just to avoid the public opinion backlash.

[Polybius]

30. The problem with Gorsuch is that some libertarians side with states rights on the issue

No idea what he would do, he's a mystery to me.

[CTyankee]

27. Much as I want to believe that, I have lived long enough to know that when it comes to this subject

(and maybe guns) reason often flees. Sorry to say.

[Mike Nelson]

5. Agree...

... that's my calculation. Roberts could do that, especially if one of the new threesome is willing. I think they have signaled which way they are leaning, to each other... I think the SC probably knows how they are going to vote before most votes are cast. We may be surprised, at times. They are not.

[Haggard Celine]

6. I think the other 5 will all vote to overturn it.

The ones who aren't religious will use the excuse that Roe asserts a constitutional right to privacy, which isn't listed in the Constitution. Other conservatives have mentioned that as a sticking point before. That bunch doesn't care about precedent, I think.

[Haggard Celine]

22. I agree with that, but do they?

I think they're going to make abortion a state issue. Even if Congress passes a law making it legal in all states, the Court might overturn it. What we really need to do is pass something like the Equal Rights Amendment. Of course, in order to do that, we're going to have to clean out the state houses. I think Congress needs to try to pass a law, but I'm just not sure it won't get struck down by this activist RW Court we currently have. We've got a lot of work to do, and it's going to get very ugly in some states. Maybe even in most states.

[Haggard Celine]

25. I live in Mississippi, so things aren't very encouraging on that front.

The best we can hope for is that the degens won't totally take over. Getting the GOP nomination here is pretty much winning the election, with the exception of the areas that have a majority black population and a few outliers. So our best option here is to get more moderate Republicans elected. We haven't had too much of the really egregious things happening, as far as I'm aware, but there are a sizable minority who love Trump and hate all Democrats. Our governor is dumb, but he isn't so far to the right that he grandstands like DeSantis. So things are tenuous here, and it could get ugly very easily if a few of the wrong people get control. As everybody knows, it's happened before, and it's kind of scary.

[Tomconroy]

8. As I understand it, they will hear the arguments this morning

Then have a conference this afternoon and have a vote. Somebody gets assigned to write the majority opinion. Then they start writing and circulate opinions and sometimes people switch votes. The big decisions don't usually come down until the end of the term in June.
But I'm not an expert.
Probably someone else here knows better.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

10. I think you're pretty close.

[Tomconroy]

11. Supposedly in the Obamacare case Roberts assigned himself

The majority opinion to kill it but then switched sides and wrote the majority opinion to save it. But that's a rumor.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

13. Interesting... had not heard that.

[Tomconroy]

24. It might be true:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2012/07/01/the-supreme-courts-john-roberts-changed-his-obamacare-vote-in-may/

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

31. Oh ok, thanks... that gives me hope!

[exboyfil]

9. Their base would go absolutely insane if the MS law isn't upheld

I think it will be 6-3.

Roberts will join the majority. I don't he gains anything by joining the minority.

[hlthe2b]

12. I doubt it. Certainly not Thomas, Alito, Barrett and I highly doubt Gorsuch.

I seriously doubt the beer-swigging Frat boy, Kavanaugh, unless he feels a twinge of past worry and thus desire to act on behalf of frat boys everywhere to keep that an option to hide their "mistakes,"

[BlueTsunami2018]

16. Abortion will still be available to people of means.

I don’t see any way they don’t overturn it. This is the right wing wet dream. This is the payoff the base has been waiting for all these decades.

[Bettie]

17. Frat boys have daddies and mommies who

will pay to get rid of their mistakes.

Overturning Roe doesn't impact wealthy women at all.

[BlueTsunami2018]

14. This has been on the fascist wish list for fifty years.

They managed, through skillful manipulation of the political system, to put themselves in position to end Roe and they’re going to take it. They don’t need it as a wedge issue anymore because they’ve rigged the voting system to ensure they never lose again. They can finally gift this to their base.

It only gets worse from here.

[Girard442]

15. They *might* seek a way to kick the can down the road past the midterms.

They might, but they'll probably straight-up overturn it.

[Bettie]

18. Because they figure they can count on suppression

and outright cheating to ensure that it doesn't impact their side in the election.

But, remember folks, we're not supposed to see them as partisan, just ignore the fact that they don't believe women should have bodily autonomy.

Imagine how fast a law regulating anything specifically about men's bodies would be gone.

[Dave says]

21. Not a chance

A chance to control women's right to choose? Diminish their freedom? Relegate women to second class citizens?

Not a chance we don't get 5-4.

[moondust]

28. Undemocratic Coat Hanger Gang split?

The orange despot would not like that.

[Johonny]

29. I will be a test of the Chief Justice's pull.

It's an embarrassment to his legacy if they over-turn it. He's been very careful about not looking like a complete fool. Unfortunately I'm not sure he has any pull on the peanut gallery.