Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana Abortion Law

[Archivist]

The Supreme Court, by a 5-4 decision with Chief Justice Roberts joining the liberals, struck down Louisiana's restrictive abortion law. The law would have required that abortion doctors obtaining admitting privileges. It resembled a Texas law that the Court struck down several years ago. The Chief Justice said that respect for precedent compelled him to vote with the majority.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana Abortion Restrictions

 

[SPF]

Legal or not, 98.5% of the abortions in the US, which are committed for convenience reasons are immoral.

 

[Archivist]

I think the Chief Justice made the correct decision. He has to follow precedent. You may see cases that will narrow Roe and Casey in the future, but not identical to earlier cases.

 

[SPF]

Does he have to follow precedent though? What if the original ruling was incorrect?

 

[Silmarien]

Does he have to follow precedent though? What if the original ruling was incorrect?

No, previous rulings can be overturned, but this only happens in extreme cases. It could happen with Roe, but I suspect Roberts himself is going to be similar to other conservative justices, like Sandra Day O'Connor, who disliked Roe but considered it settled law.

I'm not sure it would even be a good idea to repeal Roe, though, since the extremism and partisanship is really out of control on both sides. Republican states would probably start imprisoning women for having miscarriages, whereas Democratic states would be unaffected and continue to strike down laws protecting those who survive abortion attempts. Something needs to be done both about the vindictiveness on the right and the total dehumanization on the left, but I don't see that happening with the issue so politicized. What I would like to see is nation-wide restrictions of the sort that Roe permits (i.e., late term), but that doesn't look too likely.

 

[childeye 2]

Any reasoning based on falsehood ends in a contradiction. According to the semantics, to be for the Louisiana law, one has to buy into the premise that this law was meant to help protect the health of a woman when getting an abortion rather than to restrict abortions. Therefore this essentially makes the conservative wing of Scotus pro-choice advocates in their dissent.