Supreme Court rushes to end a term like no other
Under normal circumstances on decision days at the end of June, the Supreme Court emerges from behind crimson curtains to finally issue the most controversial cases of the term after months of closed-door deliberations. Wearing their judicial robe and exhausted from the final push of work, the justices take their seats and the majority opinion is read by its author.
The hand-down can take several minutes as the audience of spouses, staff, spectators and journalists digest what’s being read aloud. Often times, the justice who penned the principal dissent, also chooses to address the audience, offering a fiery oral critique of the majority opinion.
None of that is expected to happen this month.
Now, armed guards are providing 24-hour protection at the justices’ homes while protestors sometimes gather outside and the President has signed legislation to enhance security protection for the justices and their families.
With no pomp and circumstance, an official will push a button and opinions changing the contours of some of the most divisive social issues of the day including abortion, gun rights, religious liberty and the environment — will simply be released via the internet.
By then, with no reason to appear publicly, many of the justices may have already fled Washington.
There are 18 cases remaining in the term. Here are the highlights of the court’s docket:
Abortion
The dispute concerns a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. The state is asking the justices to take the giant step of overturning Roe, a seminal case decided in 1973 establishing a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability which most experts say occurs now around 23-24 weeks of pregnancy.
At oral arguments, Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart told the justices that Roe and a follow up decision from 1992 “haunt” the country.
At one time Mississippi’s law was dismissed as blatantly unconstitutional, even by a conservative-leaning appellate court. But much has changed since then, including the fact that in December the justices allowed a six-week ban on abortions in Texas to remain in effect. Since then, red states, invigorated by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, have passed increasingly restrictive laws. Last month, for example, Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill into law that bans abortions from the stage of “fertilization” and allows private citizens to sue anyone who helps a woman obtain the procedure.
In the draft opinion, Alito said that Roe “must be overruled.” If the five-member majority holds, it will wipe away near 50-year-old precedent and change the landscape of women’s reproductive health going forward.
Supporters of abortion rights are clinging to the fact that Alito’s opinion was a draft and hope it only reflects an opening salvo written after the justices cast initial votes at conference.
Votes can change during deliberations. Sometimes majority opinions…
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