SCOTUS TO TAKE ON LOUISIANA ABORTION CASE | The Blockbuster Question Justices Will Kick Off The Term With

October 4, 2019

The Supreme Court announced today that it is adding a high-profile abortion case to its docket for the new term that begins next week. The justices will review whether a Louisiana law that requires doctors at abortion clinics to obtain admitting privileges from a nearby hospital unduly burdens women’s access to abortion. It’ll be the first time the issue is at SCOTUS since JUSTICES NEIL GORSUCH and BRETT KAVANAUGH joined the bench. The Supreme Court previously reviewed a law from Texas that it struck down when JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY was still on the high court. But my, my have times changed since then.

Robert Barnes with The Washington Post reports on the blockbuster question justices will start their new term with: Is it legal to fire someone for being gay or transgender? He writes, “To some, it might seem surprising that this is an unsettled question. Cultural acceptance of the LGBTQ community is at a high…But gay rights leaders say ‘married on Sunday, fired on Monday’ is a possibility in more than half of the United States, where there is no specific protection for gay or transgender workers. The states that prohibit discrimination are not uniform — some protect only gender identity or transgender status, and some differentiate between public and private employment.”

“Supreme Court oral arguments tend to be free-for-alls, with justices often quickly interrupting lawyers — and their fellow justices — with questions right off the bat. (Lengthy legal arguments are made in written briefs that the justices have already seen.) In a rule change beginning Monday, however, lawyers will get their say.” Dan Berman and Ariane de Vogue with CNN report that lawyers will now have two minutes to talk before justices can “rip their arguments apart.”

Mark Joseph Stern with Slate thinks we should expect to see the conservative court unleashed this term. After trying to lay low and get some distance from BRETT KAVANAUGH’S explosive confirmation to SCOTUS, the justices are likely to tackle some of the most contentious issues of our time — all with a conservative majority firmly in place. Stern argues, “Multiple transformative decisions will come down in June, thrusting the court into the middle of the 2020 presidential campaign. And the full impact of Kavanaugh’s appointment will become clear as the court is dragged further to the right. This jurisprudential bloodbath will heighten the stakes of the 2020 race, amplifying the power of the president and the role of the judiciary in the most explosive political fights of the day.”