The Supreme Court is set to issue its first major opinion on abortion in nearly 10 years on Monday, closing out a tumultuous term marred by the absence of one its judges.
The abortion case the court will rule on will be the body’s first major decision on the controversial issue since 2007, when the court narrowly upheld a federal law banning late-term abortions.
The current case pertains to a Republican-backed 2013 Texas law that cut the number of abortion clinics in the state in half, to about 20. Fewer than 10 would remain if the 2013 law were allowed to take full effect, according to women’s health rights advocates.
Abortion clinics in the Lone Star State have challenged the law, claiming that the law places an undue burden on women exercising their constitutional right to abortion.
The Texas law also requires doctors performing abortion to have “admitting privileges,” a type of formal affiliation, at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic and requires clinics to have costly hospital-grade facilities.
The court is evenly divided between liberals and conservatives following the February death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
Senate Republican have refused to grant a confirmation hearing to Merrick Garland, who President Obama nominated to replace Scalia, creating a prolonged vacancy that has resulted in several 4-4 rulings.
If the high court split on the current case, a lower court’s ruling upholding the Texas law would be left in place.
Meanwhile, the court will also rule on a case brought by two men from Maine who are challenging their convictions for possessing guns under a federal law intended to keep guns out of the hands of people convicted of domestic violence crimes.
The other major case involves whether the court will overturn the corruption conviction of former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell.
The session will be the justices’ last before they disperse on their summer breaks.
Last week, they ruled on several other major cases.
In a major victory for affirmative action Thursday, a divided Supreme Court upheld the University of Texas admissions program that takes the race of prospective students into account.
But in a brutal blow to Obama, they deadlocked 4-4 on his plan to shield millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally from deportation.
A one-sentence opinion noting the 4-4 vote leaves in place a lower-court decision that halted Obama’s executive action on the grounds that he exceeded his authority.
With News Wire Services