Activists file suit asking SCOTUS to dump law that would close all but one Louisiana abortion clinic

As you may recall, in February, by a vote of 5-4, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay against the implementation of Act 620, a Louisiana law that would require doctors who provide abortions to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within a 30-mile radius of their clinics. The court did not rule on the substance of the case of June Medical Center v. Gee. Rather the justices ruled to give reproductive rights activists time to file an appeal of a 2-1 ruling of a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel that would have allowed the law to go into effect immediately.

On Wednesday, that appeal was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CCR). It calls for the court to summarily reverse the Fifth Circuit’s go-ahead on the law. This would mean no need for oral arguments or briefs to be filed. The court would simply say “no” to the appeals court and Act 620 would be permanently blocked. That would reinforce the Supremes’ decision in the case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. In that 2016 decision, the court ruled 5-3 that HB 2, a Texas law requiring hospital admitting privileges for doctors performing abortions, was unconstitutional because it placed an “undue burden” on women seeking to terminate their pregnancies. 

The advocates who drafted Act 620 intentionally modeled it on the Texas law which means the Fifth Circuit’s decision to allow the Louisiana law to go forward is openly defiant of Supreme Court precedent. Thus, the ruling in the CCR appeal ought to be a slam dunk in favor of reproductive rights advocates. Since Hellerstedt was decided, however, the Supreme Court’s composition has changed with the addition of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and the outcome of the Louisiana case is far from certain.

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2IsWmgQ