Supreme Court has consequential term with Louisiana abortion case
By Jonathan Turley, opinion contributor — 10/08/19 02:00 PM EDT
The Supreme Court is beginning one of the most consequential terms in its history, with cases dealing with gun rights, immigration, and other hot button issues. While much of the media is focused on Ukraine, the court added one case that is a standout on its already weighty docket. That case is June Medical Services versus Rebekah Gee, which involves a Louisiana abortion law, and it could be the one that pro-life advocates have long awaited to break the 5-4 wall of protection around pro-choice precedent.
The Louisiana case also is important because of its potential impact on a longstanding principle called stare decisis, the doctrine that commits justices to respect prior holdings to preserve the continuity and integrity of the court. That doctrine has always been honored primarily in the breach but, this term, with a dozen cases in highly contested areas, it could lose even the pretense of a functioning principle. Indeed, June Medical could be a lethal dose for the centuries old judicial doctrine.
June Medical is the perfect vehicle for chipping away not just at the legacy of Roe versus Wade but at the hold of precedent on such cases. Three years ago, the court struck down provisions under a Texas statute with a similar provision to the Louisiana law, requiring that doctors who perform abortions must have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The court ruled 5-3 in the Texas case that such requirements imposed a “substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a pre-viability abortion.†As conservative judge Patrick Higginbotham stated in his dissent to the Fifth Circuit Court opinion that upheld the Louisiana law, the Supreme Court decision on the Texas case would seem to clearly answer the same question. Higginbotham criticized his colleagues for failing to “meaningfully apply†the previous Supreme Court rulings.
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https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/464835-supreme-court-has-consequential-term-with-louisiana-abortion-case
