How Ginsburg’s death and Kavanaugh’s maneuvering shaped the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade and abortion rights

By Joan Biskupic, CNN Senior Supreme Court Analyst
Thu March 23, 2023

Editor’s Note: Adapted from “NINE BLACK ROBES: Inside the Supreme Court’s Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences,” by Joan Biskupic, to be published April 4 by William Morrow.

Within days of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s memorial service in late September 2020, boxes of her files and other office possessions were moved down to a dark, windowless theater on the Supreme Court’s ground floor, where – before the ongoing pandemic – tourists could watch a film about court operations.

Grieving aides to the justice who’d served 27 years and become a cultural icon known as the “Notorious RBG” sorted through the chambers’ contents there.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/23/politics/supreme-court-abortion-joan-biskupic-nine-black-robes/index.html

U.S. Supreme Court says it is unable to identify the person who leaked draft of abortion ruling

The court was rocked by a highly unusual leak of a draft opinion that previewed its ruling in June rolling back abortion rights.

Jan. 19, 2023
By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced Thursday that after a lengthy investigation it has been unable to conclusively identify who leaked an unpublished draft of an opinion indicating the court was poised to roll back abortion rights.

In an unsigned statement, the court said that all leads had been followed up and forensic analysis had been performed but that "the team has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence."

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-says-unable-identify-person-leaked-draft-abortion-ruling-rcna66578

The inside story of how John Roberts failed to save abortion rights

Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer
Tue July 26, 2022

Chief Justice John Roberts privately lobbied fellow conservatives to save the constitutional right to abortion down to the bitter end, but May's unprecedented leak of a draft opinion reversing Roe v. Wade made the effort all but impossible.

It appears unlikely that Roberts' best prospect -- Justice Brett Kavanaugh -- was ever close to switching his earlier vote, despite Roberts' attempts that continued through the final weeks of the session.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/26/politics/supreme-court-john-roberts-abortion-dobbs/index.html

USA – What a Roberts compromise on abortion could look like

It’s a longshot, but court watchers are closely eyeing the chief justice for middle ground on Roe.

By JOSH GERSTEIN
06/19/2022

When the two sides in the abortion debate squared off at the Supreme Court last fall, they agreed on one thing: There was no middle ground.

Now, any hope abortion rights supporters have of avoiding a historic loss before the court lies with Chief Justice John Roberts crafting an unlikely compromise. In the wake of POLITICO’s report last month on a draft majority opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, Roberts would have to convince at least one of his five Republican-appointed colleagues to sign on to a compromise ruling that would preserve a federal constitutional right to abortion in some form while giving states even more power to restrict that right.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/19/john-roberts-compromise-abortion-supreme-court-00040720

Women who are denied abortions risk falling deeper into poverty. So do their kids

May 26, 2022
Jennifer Ludden

Like most women seeking an abortion, Brittany Mostiller already had children when she unexpectedly got pregnant again. "I had two young daughters both under the age of 5, sharing a two-bedroom apartment with my sister," she says. She'd also just been laid off from her overnight job as a greeter for Greyhound buses. Her unemployment benefits were less than her wages there, and nearly all of them went toward rent and utilities. "I'm not even sure I had a cellphone at that time," she says. "If I did, it was certainly on and off," to save money.

Continued:https://www.npr.org/2022/05/26/1100587366/banning-abortion-roe-economic-consequences

Leaked Supreme Court draft opinion in abortion case leaves questions about shape of final ruling

Roberts may be working on an alternative opinion, analyst says

Joan Biskupic, CNN
Thu May 12, 2022

(CNN) Politico's publication last week of Justice Samuel Alito's first draft in a Mississippi abortion dispute opened an exceptional window on the inner workings of the Supreme Court.

Yet, as significant as the disclosure was --
involving such an early draft in a case of such magnitude -- much remains
hidden.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/12/politics/supreme-court-draft-opinion/index.html

12.05.2022

Chief Justice John Roberts

Clarence Thomas

Justice Harry Blackmun

The Devastating Economic Impacts of an Abortion Ban

The overturning of Roe v. Wade would seriously hinder women’s education, employment, and earning prospects.

By Sheelah Kolhatkar
May 11, 2022

Last December, oral arguments were held before the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case leading to the leaked draft opinion last week that, if finalized, would overturn Roe v. Wade. During one especially illuminating moment, Chief Justice John Roberts attempted to draw Julie Rikelman—the litigation director of the Center for Reproductive Rights, who was arguing to have a ban on abortions after fifteen weeks in the state of Mississippi overturned—into a back-and-forth about the significance of the cutoff for having access to an abortion. Rikelman made a broader argument, that narrowing women’s access to the procedure could disproportionately harm low-income women or those experiencing personal crises. She turned to numbers to bolster her argument. “In fact,” Rikelman said, “the data has been very clear over the last fifty years that abortion has been critical to women’s equal participation in society. It’s been critical to their health, to their lives, their ability to pursue—”

“I’m sorry, what—what kind of data is that?” Roberts interrupted.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-devastating-economic-impacts-of-an-abortion-ban

USA – The Supreme Court’s ‘Dead Hand’

The 6–3 majority-conservative Supreme Court is dangerously out of step with a demographically and culturally changing America.

By Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic
FEBRUARY 11, 2022

The supreme court has set itself on a collision course with the forces of change in an inexorably diversifying America.

The six Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices have been nominated and confirmed by GOP presidents and senators representing the voters least exposed, and often most hostile, to the demographic and cultural changes remaking 21st-century American life. Now the GOP Court majority is moving at an accelerating pace to impose that coalition’s preferences on issues such as abortion, voting rights, and affirmative action.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/02/supreme-court-conservative-rulings/622050/

USA – The Supreme Court is leading a Christian conservative revolution

Almost as soon as Justice Barrett was confirmed, the Court handed down a revolutionary “religious liberty” decision. It hasn’t slowed down since.

By Ian Millhiser
Jan 30, 2022

Justice Amy Coney Barrett had been a member of the Supreme Court for less than a month when she cast the key vote in one of the most consequential religion cases of the past century.

Months earlier, when the seat she would fill was still held by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Court had handed down a series of 5-4 decisions establishing that churches and other houses of worship must comply with state occupancy limits and other rules imposed upon them to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/22889417/supreme-court-religious-liberty-christian-right-revolution-amy-coney-barrett

Overturning Roe isn’t only about red states or abortion

BY MICHAEL J. DELL, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
01/29/22

As the Supreme Court
considers Mississippi’s request to overturn Roe v. Wade, most people realize
that the constitutional right to abortion is in grave, perhaps mortal peril.
Former President Donald Trump made clear he would pack the court with justices
who would reject Roe, and he was able to pick three justices: Neil Gorsuch,
Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

It is hard to
overstate what a critical crossroad the challenge to Roe presents not only for
abortion but for so many of our other most cherished constitutional rights.

Continued: https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/591954-overturning-roe-isnt-only-about-red-states-or-abortion

29.01.2022