A reminder, if we needed one why elections matter from the
Financial Times:
Supreme Court set to signal abortion stance
Only hours after the close of a bitterly fought congressional election, the US Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear a pair of politically explosive abortion cases that could signal whether the new Bush court will threaten Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion ruling.
More:
The court will hear two cases, Gonzales v Carhart and Gonzales v Planned Parenthood, that test the constitutionality of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, a federal law that chips away at the right to abortion by banning a particular abortion procedure.
Why the two new Justices are particularly crucial? It seems the 2000 version of the court already struck down a similar Nebraska law:
In Wednesday's cases, the justices are faced with the choice of limiting or overturning a 2000 precedent, Stenberg v Carhart, in which the court struck down a Nebraska law that was very similar to the law later passed by Congress. That case was decided by a 5-4 majority, with the now-departed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor casting the deciding vote.
(emphasis added)
Well, I'm sad to say Stenberg is almost guaranteed to go down, cause if anyone is counting on Kennedy to "swing" our way on this one, from wikipedia:
Kennedy claimed this type of law was allowed by their ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which allowed laws to preserve prenatal life to a certain extent. He called Sandra Day O'Connor's behavior a "betrayal."
Ouch. I won't dirty your eyes with quotes from the two bench-warming ideologues in black robes, go read the wiki if you want to see Scalia calling for overturning Casey v Planned Parenthood.
Here's praying for 51 in the senate and for Alito or Roberts to get visited by 3 ghosts the night before they write their rulings.