After the Supreme Court invalidates Texas abortion restrictions, @SCOTUSblog reports @Beyonce playing in the plaza. pic.twitter.com/WTzoJ4jRGe
— Alia Maria Almeida (@aliamaria9) June 27, 2016
Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt is completely overturned FIVE TO THREE, with Roberts, Alito, and Thomas dissenting.
Breyer and Kennedy join Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan in the majority. Scotusblog:
Both the admitting privileges and surgical center requirements place a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, constitute an undue burden on abortion access, and thus violate the Constitution.
We'll have more as we have time to read the opinion. A very good day for once.
You'll recall that Sotomayor made her opinion known during oral arguments in March, that demanding surgical centers in order to take two pills was massively stupid. We can't quote this paragraph from Slate enough. Go read the whole thing for a feel-good about the future of SCOTUS once Madam President has a few justices added on.
It felt as if, for the first time in history, the gender playing field at the high court was finally leveled, and as a consequence the court’s female justices were emboldened to just ignore the rules. Time limits were flouted to such a degree that Chief Justice John Roberts pretty much gave up enforcing them. I counted two instances in which Roberts tried to get advocates to wrap up as Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor simply blew past him with more questions. There was something wonderful and symbolic about Roberts losing almost complete control over the court’s indignant women, who are just not inclined to play nice anymore.
Damn right.
RBG's...conclusion is designed to give today's opinion as broad a reach as possible: ....Providers laws like H. B. 2 that “do little or nothing for health, but rather strew impediments to abortion... cannot survive judicial inspection."
This decision is expected to affect other state's efforts to put provider restrictions in place.
