BREAKING: Supreme Court Upholds Abortion Ban

ACSBlog's preview of this case may be found here.  Justice Kennedy wrote the opinion.

UPDATE: According to SCOTUSBlog, the Court upheld the law on its face, but said that as applied challenges to the law would be permitted:

The Court said that it was upholding the law as written -- that is, its facial language. It said that the lawsuits challenging the law should not have been allowed in court "in the first instance." The proper way to make a challenge, if an abortion ban is claimed to harm a woman's right to abortion, is through as as-applied claim, Kennedy wrote. His opinion said that courts could consider such claims "in discrete and well-defined instances" where "a condition has or is likely to occur in which the procedure prohibited by the Act must be used."

Kennedy said the Court was assuming that the federal ban would be unconstitutional "if it subjected women to significant health risks." He added, however, that "safe medical options are available."

UPDATE II: Also from SCOTUSBlog:

Joining Kennedy in the majority were Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. With Ginsburg in dissent were Justices Stephen G. Breyer, David H. Souter and John Paul Stevens. Thus, Alito's replacement of retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor made the difference in turning the Court around from its 2000 decision in the Stenberg case.

UPDATE III: The Court's opinion is here.


Written By:Chris Bell On April 18, 2007 10:51 AM

And so it begins.

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