From CBS News:
UPDATE: The Supreme Court on Monday announced it would consider Mississippi’s petition during a conference on Friday. In most cases, the court announces its decision whether to take up a case the following Monday, according to the Supreme Court’s website.
The Mississippi attorney general petitioned the Supreme Court again on Thursday to review the state’s 15-week abortion ban, a case that directly challenges Roe v. Wade and has the potential to reverse the landmark 1973 decision. The request came just hours after Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the high court. The full Senate voted to confirm her on Monday.
In the seven-page supplemental brief, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch pointed to separate abortion-related cases where federal appeals court judges have extracted different interpretations of the Supreme Court’s decision in June Medical Services v. Russo — the court’s most recent abortion case which struck down a Louisiana abortion regulation. While some courts have cited the majority opinion to block other abortion restrictions, others have instead used Chief Justice John Roberts’ concurrence to rule in favor of regulations that hinder abortion access.
…In Fitch’s initial July request that the Supreme Court review the 15-week ban, he posed the question of “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional,” a direct challenge to the core finding of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that nationally legalized abortion prior to fetal viability, which generally happens around 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
“Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban defies nearly fifty years of Supreme Court precedent,” said Hillary Schneller, the staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights challenging the state law, in an email to CBS News. “Mississippi’s abortion ban, by definition, is a complete and insurmountable obstacle for pregnant people seeking abortion care after 15 weeks.”
