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6 ¦ JULY 6, 2020 NEWS

¦ From ROBERTS on PAGE 5
Roberts also stated: “The legal
doctrine of stare decisis requires
us, absent special circumstances,
to treat like cases alike. The Loui-
siana law imposes a burden on
access to abortion just as severe as
that imposed by the Texas law, for
the same reasons. Therefore Loui-
siana’s law cannot stand under our
precedents.”
Separate dissenting opinions were
filed by Justices Samuel Alito Jr.,
Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and
Brett Kavanaugh. Thomas wrote: Abortion rights advocates and challengers rallied outside the U.S.
“Today a majority of the court per- Supreme Court on March 4. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ ALM)

petuates its ill-founded abortion jurisprudence by the court’s newest justices, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
enjoining a perfectly legitimate state law and doing The case was closely watched for how the two jus-
so without jurisdiction. “ tices would rule and what they might say. Equally
The decision by the Supreme Court was a victory important were the potential implications of the jus-
for abortion rights advocates who have vigorously tices’s treatment of their 2016 precedent in a nearly
opposed in other states the nearly identical re- identical case—Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
quirement imposed by Louisiana: that all abortion In that case, Roberts voted in dissent.
physicians have hospital admitting privileges within In Whole Woman’s Health, Justice Anthony Ken-
30 miles of the abortion facility. nedy joined the court’s four liberal justices in a
“We’re relieved that the Louisiana law has been decision by Justice Stephen Breyer striking down
blocked today but we’re concerned about tomor- Texas’s 30-mile hospital admitting privileges re-
row. With this win, the clinics in Louisiana can quirement because, they said, it served no medical
stay open to serve the one million women of re- benefit at all and burdened women’s right to choose
productive age in the state,” Nancy Northup, abortion.
president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, Some of Louisiana’s supporting amici had urged
said in a statement. “But the court’s decision could the justices to narrow or outright overrule the 2016
embolden states to pass even more restrictive laws decision. And one of them—Americans United for
when clarity is needed if abortion rights are to be Life—called on the court in its brief to re-examine
protected.” the landmark abortion rights decisions Roe v. Wade
If the Louisiana law were enforced, a federal dis- and Planned Parenthood of S.E. Pennsylvania v.
trict court found that only one physician at one of Casey.
the state’s three clinics would remain to provide In a cross-petition filed by Louisiana, the state
services for an estimated 10,000 women seeking challenged the high court’s holdings for four decades
abortions each year. that abortion providers have third-party standing to
The ruling is likely to energize anti-abortion challenge abortion regulations on behalf of their pa-
groups to engage in another round of lobbying for tients.
the admitting privileges requirement in additional ¦

states. Marcia Coyle, based in Washington, covers the
The Louisiana case, June Medical Services v. Russo, U.S. Supreme Court. Contact her at mcoyle@alm.
was the first abortion-related case to come before com. On Twitter: @MarciaCoyle

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