Justice Roberts Swings Another SCOTUS Ruling; Blocks Louisiana Abortion Law

Update (11:05ET): In response to Chief Justice John Roberts siding with liberal judges on the Louisiana abortion ruling – Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio tweets: “What’s next, Chief Justice Roberts? Our Second Amendment rights?”

What’s next, Chief Justice Roberts? Our Second Amendment rights? https://t.co/aMj3FeT9sQ

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) June 29, 2020

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday morning supported abortion rights by striking down a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics, reported Bloomberg. 

The 5-4 ruling, with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the court’s four liberals, determined that the law requiring doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals violates the abortion right the court first published in the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

The Louisiana law is similar to the one in Texas that the court struck down in 2016 – making this the first big abortion case of the Trump era.

“The result, in this case, is controlled by our decision four years ago invalidating a nearly identical Texas law,” Roberts wrote. 

“The legal doctrine of stare decisis requires us, absent special circumstances, to treat like cases alike,” he wrote.

“The Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the Texas law, for the same reasons. Therefore Louisiana’s law cannot stand under our precedents.”

As JustTheNews’ Sophie Mann noted, one speculation going into this ruling was that the reputation of the Roberts’ court would suffer if the body used the Louisiana case to overturn its previous ruling on the Hellerstedt case. Though Roberts was not the deciding vote in 2016, and the court has added several conservative-leaning justices since that time, Roberts has made it clear that a top priority of his is maintaining the integrity of the court.

This is the third time this month Chief Justice Roberts has sided with the liberals of the court on a hot-button social issue (protecting DREAMers, upholding LGBTQ employment rights, and now striking down state abortion restrictions).

As Daily Caller’s Mary Margaret Olohan notes, this SCOTUS ruling comes after Senate Minority Leader Schumer warned Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch that they “won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” related to the abortion case.