January 31, 2006
Roe: when developments happen, they will happen quickly ::
legal — tagged conlaw, judges, legal, politics and SCOTUS
8:56 pm
For all you Due Process/abortion law people out there, here comes an interesting piece over at SCOTUSBlog about the a possible change in abortion law in the near future. The issue involves the 2003 Partial Birth Abortion Act, which the Ninth Circuit enjoined the federal government from enforcing. Although under current law it is no surprise the law was struck down. But what’s interesting (and also scary, if you support the protections of Roe) is that things could turn out substantially differently if the case winds up before the Supreme Court.
With a new Justice, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., on the Court, a majority might be assembled to reexamine that core question, and thus to revisit the 2000 decision in Stenberg v. Carhart striking down a state-level “partial-birth” ban. That was decided on a 5-4 vote, with Alito’s predecessor, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, in the majority.
I make no predictions on who will vote how on such a case. In fact, I won’t even wager to guess whether the Court will decide to hear the case. But in the event that they do decide to hear the case, we could very well be dealing with a different legal landscape when it comes to Abortion law, not to mention the right to privacy generally.
