Supreme Court Temporarily Prevents Forced Texas Clinic Closures
By The Supreme Court has temporarily reversed the devastating impact of Texas’s restrictive abortion law, blocking a law that earlier this month had closed all but eight legal abortion clinics in the second-largest state. The immediate result, a rare victory for abortion rights, is the expected reopening of 13 clinics that closed on October 2.
Three members of the court – Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – said they would have denied the clinics’ appeal entirely. Either or both Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy appear to have signed on with the court’s liberals; both voted to let an earlier portion of the law to go into effect, which also closed more than a dozen clinics.
It’s important simply because for the time being it preserves meaningful access for many Texas women. But it provides at least the slightest glimmer of hope that there are limits to how much content Kennedy is willing to let get drained out of Casey.
Liptak has more.