[ad_1]
The Supreme Court added to its calendar on Monday an additional release of opinions scheduled for this week, including potentially the decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade.
With 30 opinions still not issued in the final weeks of the term, several will now drop on Wednesday, according to an update on the high court’s website.
While June is always a hectic time at the Supreme Court, this year is different as the nine justices reshape social issues – like abortion – and scramble to salvage the federal Judicial branch’s legitimacy after the leak last month.
Nationwide chaos ensued in early May after Politico published a leaked copy of a draft opinion showing the 6-3 conservative court overturning Roe v. Wade – the 1973 case that made abortion legal at the federal level.
The court released three opinions already on Monday morning.
Other than abortion, some other rulings that are expected revolve around the Second Amendment, religious liberties, immigration and climate change.
The entire landscape of the debate has shifted recently in the midst of the unprecedented leak and two mass shootings – including the massacre in Texas that left 19 fourth and fifth grade students dead last month.
As abortion becomes a center of debate following the breach, states have started implementing their own laws surrounding the healthcare issue.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday slammed Louisiana’s new law that would increase the criminal consequences on healthcare professionals who provide abortions if the ruling is overturned.
The Supreme Court added to its calendar on Monday another day it will issue opinions on Wednesday, June 8, 2022 as it has 30 left to release in the final weeks of the term
June is usually hecticat the Supreme Court, but more so this year as the nine justices reshape social issues – like abortion and gun rights – and scramble to salvage the federal Judicial branch’s legitimacy after the leak last month. Pictured: Police arrest a pro-abortion activist on Monday, June 6 after he chained his neck to the fence that went up around the Supreme Court last month
‘The Louisiana legislature has taken the latest step in a growing attack against the fundamental freedoms of Americans,’ President Joe Biden’s top spokeswoman wrote in a statement on the bill. ‘Louisiana’s extreme bill will criminalize abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest and punish reproductive healthcare professionals with up to ten years in prison.’
‘The President is committed to protecting the constitutional rights of Americans afforded by Roe for nearly 50 years, and ensuring that women can make their own choices about their lives, bodies, and families,’ she added.
‘An overwhelming majority of the American people agree and reject these kinds of radical measures.’
Jean-Pierre is referencing recent polls that show more than half of Americans consider themselves pro-choice and around two-thirds are in favor of keeping Roe v. Wade in tact.
Louisiana’s bill passed Thursday that would increase prison terms for abortion providers from a maximum of five years to 10 years and raises fines from a range of $5,000 – $50,000 to between $10,000 – $100,000.
These consequences would only go into effect if the Supreme Court overturns the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, which it is expected to do later this month, according to a draft document that was leaked in May.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre released a statement Monday slamming a new Louisiana law that would increase criminal consequences for abortion providers if Roe v. Wade is overturnedÂ
‘The Louisiana legislature has taken the latest step in a growing attack against the fundamental freedoms of Americans,’ Jean-Pierre wrote
Louisiana is one of the 13 states that has so-called ‘trigger laws’, along with Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming,
These trigger laws would immediately ban all abortion once Roe v. Wade is overturned.
The Supreme Court is issuing its opinions for the term at the end of June – and anticipated as part of that is a full overturn of the 50-year-old landmark abortion ruling that constitutionally protected a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion was leaked last month showing an overturn to Roe v. Wade along with the support of three other conservative justices; Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
Chief Justice John Roberts said that he would not support an entire overturn, although he does support the Mississippi case that brought the issue before the Supreme Court in the first place that would make abortion illegal after 15 weeks into a pregnancy.
With a 6-3 conservative majority on the bench, Roberts’ defection doesn’t make a difference in determining the opinion.
Roberts immediately launched an investigation into the leaked draft opinion – at the same time confirming the validity of the document that was published by Politico in early May. It appears that investigators believe the most likely source of the leak is a recent law school graduate law clerk, of which each justice usually has four.
The Louisiana bill, passed by the state’s Senate but not yet signed by the governor, would increase prison maximums from five years to 10 and the fines from a range of $5,000 – $50,000 to between $10,000 – $100,000. Pictured: Pro-life demonstrators rally outside the Louisiana Capitol to support the bill on Thursday, May 12, 2022
Pro-abortion protesters cheer during nationwide demonstrations in support of Roe v. Wade in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 14, 2022
Louisiana’s Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, has not yet said whether he will veto the bill that was passed by his state’s Senate last week.
Edwards said he supports abortion exceptions in the case of rape and incest, but has previously said that he would still support the bill without any changes, even thought it does not include these exceptions.
‘Vetoing the bill wouldn’t accomplish what I would like to have, which is the exceptions for rape and incest,’ Edwards said at a press conference on Thursday.
Louisiana State Senator Katrina Jackson, a Democrat, sponsored the bill. It was significantly amended on the House floor with 15 additional pages to the five-page bill.
The amendments included exceptions for cases where the mother’s life is at risk or if the fetus has a condition that would not allow it to live outside the womb.
The bill does not criminalize women who get abortions – just the providers who perform the procedure.
Louisiana’s criminal code defines a ‘person’ as ‘a human being from the moment of fertilization and implantation.’
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, the issue of abortion will be sent back to the states, meaning that Republicn states will likely have more strict laws to outright bans, while blue states could have abortion legal until the time of birth.
Democratic enclaves red states are vowing to serve as ‘sanctuaries’ for abortion rights.
In response to public outcry over the leaked draft opinion, blue cities situated in red states claim they will not enforce prosecution if abortion us outlawed at a state level.
A city council member in Austin, Texas, José ‘Chito’ Vela, proposed a resolution that would decriminalize abortion at a local level if the state fully bans it.
A WSJ poll shows 68% – more than two-thirds – of Americans want Roe v. Wade upheld by the Supreme Court in order to maintain federal-level protections for abortion rights
Texas already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
Currently abortion is illegally at the point where a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is around the six-week point in a pregnancy. Many women who seek abortions are unaware they are pregnant at this point in the first trimester.
Vela’s spokesperson Jenna Hanes said his office has been in contact with lawmakers in several Texas cities, including Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, who are interested in advancing similar measures to protect abortion.
The idea of these ‘sanctuary cities’ is an echo of the term used for cities that refused to aid the federal government in enforcing immigration laws.
Prosecutors in New Orleans, Louisiana; Nashville, Tennessee; DeKalb County, Georgia, which is the eastern part of Atlanta; Fairfax County, Virginia; and Durham County, North Carolina have all said abortion-related cases will not be a high priority.
Some have directly said they won’t enforce state bans.
New Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Roger Williams said he ‘will not shift priority from tackling shootings, rapes and carjackings to investigating the choices women make with regard to their own bodies.’
[ad_2]
Source link
