Answer to Question #289290 in History for yoo

Question

1. Research and explain the Mississippi law being argued by the court and describe how things in America could change if the Supreme Court upholds it.

Answer 1

Based on often harsh and passionate questioning during a pivotal debate in the most important abortion case in decades, the Supreme Court appeared prepared to uphold a Mississippi law that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Such a result would be diametrically opposed to the court's interpretation of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion and barred states from prohibiting the operation before fetal viability, or around 23 weeks.

In the following days, the justices cast tentative votes in a secret meeting. The majority opinion will subsequently be assigned to a colleague or, more often, kept by the senior justice in the majority. Draft opinions will be drafted and shared, virtually definitely containing concurrences and dissents. The court typically takes three months to make a ruling after an argument. However, the verdict in the abortion case is not expected until late June or early July, when important rulings are expected to be handed down, whether they were fought early in the term, as this one was, or in the court's final argument session.

There are good grounds for delaying decisions on the most important cases for so long. One is that, until the very last moment, judges polish the opinions that will define their legacies. The release of numerous big decisions in fast succession, some liberal and some conservative, "may serve to disperse media attention and other comments of any given case, and thereby save the justices unwelcome criticism," according to a second possibility. The third explanation was more personal: the most important decisions are sometimes divisive and bruising, so the judges may decide it's best to make them right before they go on vacation.