Supreme Court divided on abortion case
WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. emerged Wednesday as the pivotal, if inscrutable, key to whether a more conservative Supreme Court is ready to reconsider its precedents protecting abortion rights.
The court’s four liberals appeared convinced that the Louisiana law at issue, requiring admitting privileges at nearby hospitals for abortion-clinic doctors, is identical to one from Texas that the Supreme Court struck down four years ago.
That appeared to leave Chief Justice Roberts, now at the court’s ideological center, holding the deciding vote.
As the case was argued, he asked a variation of the same question to all three lawyers addressing the justices: Should the court undertake a fact-dependent, state-bystate analysis when reviewing such restrictions?
That could indicate he felt he could distinguish Louisiana’s law from the Texas statute. Or it could mean he agreed with challengers that similar laws were doomed because of the court’s precedent from 2016. Chief Justice Roberts, a dissenter in the Texas case, did not indicate what he believed was the proper answer.
The justices’ examination of the Louisiana law could be momentous if it signaled that the court was ready to revisit past decisions. And whatever it decides before the end of June will come in the midst of a heated presidential election in which Democrats have made abortion rights a priority and President Donald Trump has said his ultimate goal is to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Mr. Trump has said his judicial nominees will oppose abortion, and it was the first major abortion case for his Supreme Court choices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Justice Gorsuch did not ask a question during the hour-long oral arguments. Justice Kavanaugh’s questioning was similar to that of Chief Justice Roberts, as he wondered whether different conditions in states could afford different outcomes than in the 2016 case, Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstadt.
CNN reported that Chief Justice Roberts also issued a rare statement rebuking Chuck Schumer for comments the Senate minority leader made about Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Mr. Schumer, speaking at a rally of abortion rights supporters, appeared to threaten Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsuch.
“I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” Mr. Schumer said.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Chief Justice Roberts said: “Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.”
Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman said criticism of the New York Democrat’s comments are a “deliberate misinterpretation.”