Justices agree to hear major Mississippi abortion case

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: SCOTUSblog

BREAKING NEWS

Justices agree to hear major Mississippi abortion case

In a Monday order list, the court granted a petition regarding a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The court will hear the case, as well as two other cases, for oral argument next term.

Also on Monday, the court is expected to issue one or more opinions in argued cases from the current term starting at 10 a.m. Follow along on our live blog.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/05/announcement-of-opinions-for-monday-may-17/

Read more: https://www.scotusblog.com/

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Hat tip, an email from a source I never signed up and I wish would stop sending me things at work

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BREAKING: The Supreme Court agrees to take up a major abortion case that will give the court an opportunity to reconsider Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The case involves the constitutionality of Mississippi's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Link to tweet

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Beat me by a minute!

Supreme Court to review Mississippi abortion law that advocates see as a path to diminish Roe v Wade


By Robert Barnes
May 17, 2021 at 9:47 a.m. EDT

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will review a restrictive Mississippi abortion law that opponents of the procedure say provides a clear path to diminish Roe v. Wade’s establishment of the right of women to choose an abortion. Abortion opponents for months have urged the court’s conservatives to seize the chance to reexamine the 1973 precedent. Mississippi is one among many Republican-led states that have passed restrictions that conflict with the court’s precedents protecting a woman’s right to choose before fetal viability.

In accepting the case, the court said it would examine whether “all pre-viability prohibitions on abortion are unconstitutional.” That has been a key component of the court’s jurisprudence. The Mississippi law would ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. But both a district judge and a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit said that could not be squared with decades of Supreme Court precedents. “In an unbroken line dating to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s abortion cases have established (and affirmed, and re-affirmed) a woman’s right to choose an abortion before viability,” Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote for the appeals court. “States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability so long as they do not impose an undue burden on the woman’s right but they may not ban abortions.”

Mississippi already bans abortions after 20 weeks, and it has also passed legislation that would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, or near six weeks. Lower courts declined to let that law, or the 15-week ban passed in 2018, take effect. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves wrote in a 2018 ruling that the Mississippi legislature’s “professed interest in ‘women’s health’ is pure gaslighting.” “The State chose to pass a law it knew was unconstitutional to endorse a decades-long campaign, fueled by national interest groups, to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Reeves wrote.

The state argued that because the clinic challenging the law offered abortions only up to 16 weeks, the law was not affecting many women. The harm to the state, it said, was “requiring it to permit inhumane abortion procedures which cause a fetus to experience pain — a factor the Supreme Court has never explicitly addressed.” But the Center for Reproductive Rights, representing the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, said the law was simply not allowed by Roe or the court’s 1992 decision affirming the abortion right, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade/2021/05/17/cdaf1dd6-b708-11eb-a6b1-81296da0339b_story.html

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Sorry. Usually the articles are by "staff" until Robert Barnes can write up a lengthy piece.

This is a big deal, as he was on it right away. He's an excellent source.

https://twitter.com/scotusreporter

Thanks, and good morning.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. I was replying to something else when the breaking came in

so finished the reply and grabbed the link to WaPo's article from their twitter page that I have in a tab so I could get the excerpts.

Good Monday morning (hopefully)!

[LiberatedUSA]

3. Well this right here makes it a do or die moment.

They accept this case and it will be a 5-4 with Roberts siding with the decent either out of a sense if he truly is pro choice or because his vote won’t matter.

The do or die moment is, expand the court and stop this from happening or don’t and lose the case. Which of course means ending the filibuster.

I don’t see any situation with the current court that won’t get at least 5-4.

[FBaggins]

28. I wouldn't say that's necessarily so

There's obviously some risk because they chose to take the case - implying that there are at least four justices willing to weigh in. But the 5th circuit is the court below... and they lean further right than SCOTUS - yet rejected the law.

[heckles65]

4. Not good news

But the mistresses of the rich will always get their abortions. That's in Mississippi, Iran, Saudi Arabia, wherever.

[Orrex]

11. You've hit the nail on the head

For my part, the GOP doesn't want to get rid of Roe until they're sure that they have another guaranteed outrage machine to replace it.

But they'll happily chip way at women's personal sovereignty as much as they can along the way.

[Lonestarblue]

30. They have their new outrage already.

It’s called election fraud. Doesn’t matter that it’s not true, it’s what gins up the Trumpists and gets them out to vote.

[DENVERPOPS]

20. Back in the day,

I distinctly remember, before the pill and legal abortions, many rich girls suddenly went on a "student exchange program" in Sweden, Switzerland, etc.

Most middle class and lower class girls were shamed by having to go to a home for un-wed mothers, or worse, almost die from an back alley illegal abortion. Many which, if they survived, would never be able to mother a child...........

[marie999]

31. At our high school, the girls went to New York to visit a sick aunt.

[moonscape]

32. I had an acquaintance at university,

definitely back in the day, who desperately did the coathanger-in-motelroom thing. She hemorrhaged badly and ended up in ER but survived it, physically at least. Was quite a nightmare.

[AngryOldDem]

5. Well, we'll soon see the ramifications of the Trump Court.

Not optimistic at all right now.

[BradAllison]

7. Amy Hot Dog can't wait. (n/M)

[Wednesdays]

8. More like Amy Hand Maiden. nt

[Indyfan53]

9. Fuck the Bernie-or-bust crowd!

This is exactly what I feared would happen if Trump stacked the court.

Had the left gave Hillary a chance, we might still have reproductive rights.

Fuck the purists who let Trump win! They doomed us all!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. Here are more accounts you might want to follow:

Ariane de Vogue Retweeted

BIG NEWS from the Supreme Court: the Justices will take up a major abortion case next term that could severely limit Roe v. Wade. They will decide a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks; the law has been blocked by the lower courts.

Link to tweet

https://twitter.com/JoanBiskupic

[bucolic_frolic]

13. They would have allowed lower court rulings to stand

if they didn't have a predisposition to overturn them.

Where is the freedom if "women are cows make them breed"?

[Oppaloopa]

19. Did anyone see the movie on Spectrum on demand Roe vs Wade? Very upsetting movie

[dalton99a]

12. Kick

[niyad]

14. And the WAR ON WOMEN continues apace.

[Escurumbele]

15. republican platform throughout the years: Abortion and Taxes

That is it! and of course, take away benefits, screw everyone but their donors and themselves, promote hate, racism, misogyny, lie, and a few more that have nothing to do with running a government.

[Mr.Bill]

29. Agree,

although you left out guns.

[barbtries]

16. dread.

the beginning of the end of legal abortion?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

17. We'll see how the handmaiden and kegger Kavanaugh react.

I'm not positive.

[Bayard]

18. It looks to limit abortion for now, but not ban altogether

But I'm sure that's coming if the Neanderthals win this one.

I've never understood how you could legally give rights, but then take them away again.

[bottomofthehill]

21. As a reminder for those who stayed home in 16

Or worse, said there is no difference between Hillary and Trump, I give you the Supreme Court and the three Trump appointees.

Thank you Susan Sarandon, Bernie Bros and all that are pure of heart. Good choice, or good bye choice….. maybe you need to look at what is best and not what is perfect in your special little world.

[seta1950]

23. So true

They anger me so much the susan sarandons of this world.

[dalton99a]

24. +1

[AZ8theist]

44. Spot on....

I'm sure Suzie is SOOOO FUCKING PROUD of herself right now.......

fucking ASSHOLE.

[BobTheSubgenius]

22. Even a casual observer of US politics had to know this was coming.

This is probably the best chance ever for opponents of Roe v Wade to finally get the ruling they've wanted for decades. Everywhere you look, everything they touch is crumbling.

[peppertree]

25. This is almost certainly the end of Roe - but NOT the end of abortions themselves.

They'll just be conducted in clandestine settings - as had been the case in many states before Roe.

Maternal mortality will soar (it's already the highest in the developed world). But what do they care!

[andym]

26. 6 conservatives on the court including 5 conservative ideologues -- Roe repeal

Amy Barrett will vote for repeal based on her ideological makeup and religious beliefs, as will Alito and Thomas. Gorsuch probably will as well. Kavanaugh is the only question mark, but he was appointed on the premise that he would repeal. Roberts may not go along as his decisions have been more moderate and respectful of precedent "for a conservative," but that does not matter-- after all the SC has had a 5-4 conservative majority for a few years before and didn't repeal, but the new 6-3 majority after Justice Ginsburg's death spells Roe V Wade's doom.

One thing is how they repeal it: return it to the states to decide, or make it illegal throughout the nation. Will have generational consequences.

[CousinIT]

27. A court, indirectly appointed by an extremist rightwing organization called The Federalist Society..

... is incapable of dispensing justice (legal or moral). It is capable of promoting reproductive slavery. And it will do that.

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/reproductive-rights-and-long-hand-slave-breeding/

[Aldemelod]

33. Beware powerful religious nuts who believe they've been called by God to tell you what to do

Amy Coney Barrett is not merely a religious conservative, she is a profoundly antiabortion Catholic. She is the capstone of a prolonged Republican institutional effort to install rigidly antiabortion Catholics as a majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. There might no longer be any meaningful church-state separation among the SCOTUS conservative majority on key social issues unless one or more of the justices decides the oath to the office and the Constitution takes legal precedence over personal religious beliefs.

Barrett comes from a dispensationalist apocalyptic background and might be convinced that God divinely intervened to remove RBG and anoint Barrett to replace her. Believing you are your peculiar God's favorite to champion your peculiar religious beliefs over the majority who don't share them is dangerously destructive and antidemocratic.

[turbinetree]

39. Welcome to DU..........

[AZ8theist]

45. Welcome to DU. A very impressive 1st post...

I'm pretty sure my first one wasn't that articulate......

nor the next several hundred...

[gopiscrap]

49. welcome to DU

[Eliot Rosewater]

38. And I dont know you, at all, but let me add if you EVER BASHED HILLARY CLINTON

you OWN THIS god dammit

I am not alleging you did this, I am just so fucking angry I cant see straight

My post is NOT meant for you, I am just using your post to say this. I want to say this a million times here...

[AZ8theist]

46. You are absolutely correct...

...and it PAINED me that my daughter and SIL, who are progressive, voted 3rd party in 2016. Because...reasons...

Fortunately, after 4 years of TREASON, they now see the light. Whether it's soon enough, only time will tell. I have hope that the next generation is (finally) waking up to how destructive Repukes are to the general welfare of America.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

35. Supreme Court to Review Anti-Choice Law Designed by Alliance Defending Freedom to Overturn Roe

Hat tip, Joe.My.God.

Supreme Court to Review Anti-Choice Law Designed by Alliance Defending Freedom to Overturn Roe

By Peter Montgomery | May 17, 2021 1:01 pm

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday morning that it will hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which Vox legal analyst Ian Millhiser calls “a major threat to Roe v. Wade” and “the first abortion case to be fully briefed and argued before the Supreme Court since Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation last October.” The Court’s agreement to hear the case reflects the progress of the religious-right legal movement’s strategic plan to overturn the landmark decision affirming a constitutional right to abortion by enacting ever-more restrictive state abortion bans and getting them approved by federal courts that Donald Trump and Republican senators pushed aggressively to the right.

The law in question was passed by the Mississippi state legislature and is based on model legislation promoted by the religious-right legal group Alliance Defending Freedom as part of its plan to “eradicate” Roe v. Wade. “I am happy to say the first 15-week limitation based on our model language was just introduced in the state of Mississippi this week,” ADF Senior Counsel Denise Burke bragged at an Evangelicals for Life conference in 2018.

Right Wing Watch was the first to report on the Evangelicals for Life panel at which the ADF’s Burke described getting states, like Mississippi, to ban abortion at 15 weeks as the first step toward completely outlawing abortion. She added that “once we get these first-trimester limitations in place, we’re going to go for a complete ban on abortion except to save the life of the mother.”

Indeed, more restrictive abortion bans have been enacted by other states since then; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signaled his intention to sign a so-called “heartbeat” bill that passed the state legislature last week. If it becomes law, it would ban abortions as early as six weeks post-conception, which as the Texas Tribune noted last week is “before many women know they are pregnant.” The Texas legislation would require those who become pregnant after being raped to carry the rapist’s child to term. It also includes provisions allowing any citizen to sue doctors who perform abortions along with anyone who assists them.

{snip}

[IcyPeas]

36. I can't type what I'm really thinking..... damn it

[Eliot Rosewater]

37. Between the certain over turning or Roe and the reversal of elections in red states to

appease the traitor, civil war is inevitable. It may be the kind of civil war where shots are not fired, but the war is happening, count on it.

[AZ8theist]

47. Unfortunately, ...........I agree.

[turbinetree]

41. Oh fucking yippie.....

the right wing federalist society john roberts court gutted voting rights, and now the country gets to hear what they, the right wing federalist society backed court have to say about this right concerning "privacy"...

You think its time to expand the courts...

[LetMyPeopleVote]

42. Susan Sarandon and Jill Stein must be happy

Control of the SCOTUS and the future of Roe was on the ballot in 2016. A vote for stein was a vote to overturn Roe

[electric_blue68]

43. So infuriating!!!!! I remember...

I was ?20 when R v W was decided. A short few days after we were at my Aunt's for our extended family gathering. While I really don't remember people's answers (and no fights broke out 👍 ) I remember going around the room asking about it.
I had heard about the hangers, seen that infamous photo.

I think I marched 3x's in DC for Choice since the late 80's.

Never even thought of ever voting for Stein or the others!

I fear for my younger cousins, and my women-sisters in general. One of the biggest freedoms for women
is
when or even whether to have a child/children!



(I feel tears, and a string of curses approaching)

[CTyankee]

48. If they reverse Roe they will reverse it on the grounds it was decided. I believe that the Planned

Parenthood and the ACLU have plotted this out for a while now. If they reverse it on right to privacy grounds they can argue it on other grounds, equal protection under the law (I think, I'm not a lawyer). Justice Ginsberg always thought it should have been from that perspective that a case be brought.

We were expecting this. I don't think PPC or the ACLU has been asleep at the wheel for all these years...

[Deminpenn]

50. This decision will be very interesting given

Biden's commission to study the federal judiciary and report out later this year. CJ Robers is certainly aware that a decision overturning Roe would likely result in a make-over of SCOTUS as well as the lower level judiciary.

Can't recall where I heard it, but the gist was even though FDR's court packing plan failed, the Supreme Court got the message and never again ruled a New Deal program unconstitutional.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

51. For this thread

Link to tweet