Supreme Court Declines to Review Ninth Circuit Ruling Striking Down Arizona's 20-Week Ban

The New York Times: Supreme Court Won’t Hear Arizona Appeal on Abortion Ban, by Adam Liptak & Fernanda Santos:

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Arizona officials seeking to revive a state law that barred most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The justices offered no reasons for turning down the appeal, as is their custom. . . .

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This is good news.  The law clearly banned abortions before viability, directly challenging a major part of both the Roe and Casey frameworks.  As I stated in a recent New York Times article, "If they take the Arizona case, it seems like at least four of the justices are willing to reconsider the viability line as the point at which states can ban abortions."  Although one has to be careful about reading too much into a denial of cert., hopefully this indicates that Justice Kennedy is not ready to jettison the viaiblity line he reaffirmed in Casey.

-CEB