Pivotal vote for Supreme Court judge on divisive social issues

The new nominee for the United States Supreme Court will soon be wading into some of the nation’s most contentious issues. Disputes involving abortion, immigration, gay rights, voting rights and transgender troops could all be heading towards the nine justices.

The Republican-controlled Senate was set for a final vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination later yesterday, which could put Kavanaugh on the court as early as this week. Here are some key issues:

Abortion

Several legal battles are currently being fought over state laws restricting abortion, including one in Arkansas that effectively bans medication-induced abortions. The justices in May opted not to intervene in a case challenging that law, waiting instead for lower courts to rule, but it could return to them when that happens.

Other abortion-related cases in progress include challenges to laws banning abortions at early stages of pregnancies, including Iowa’s prohibition after a foetal heartbeat is detected.

Kavanaugh’s judicial record on abortion is thin, although last year he was on a panel of judges that issued an order preventing a 17-year-old illegal immigrant detained in Texas by US authorities from immediately obtaining an abortion.

Gay rights

Another issue expected to return to the court is whether certain types of businesses can refuse service to gay couples because of religious objections to same-sex marriage.

The high court in June sided, on narrow legal grounds, with a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for two men because of his Christian beliefs, but justices sidestepped the larger question of whether to allow broad religion-based exemptions