Opinion by Michael Dorf: The Supreme Court Should Grant Cert in the Texas Abortion Case

Dorf on Law (Oct. 12, 2015): The Supreme Court Should Grant Cert in the Texas Abortion Case, by Michael Dorf:

Micheal Dorf argues in a recent blog entry that the Supreme Court should grant cert in Whole Women's Health v. Cole. Dorf explains three reasons why the court may not want to grant cert, but he ultimately argues that they should.

In my view, the Court ought to grant cert and, after briefing and argument, reverse. As Linda Greenhouse and Reva Siegel argue persuasively in a forthcoming articlein the Yale Law Journal, the challenged provisions of the Texas law are flatly inconsistent with the fundamental distinction the Supreme Court drew in 1992 inPlanned Parenthood v. Casey when it reaffirmed the “central holding” of Roe v. Wade: Although the Court allowed that laws that aim to inform a woman’s decision whether to have an abortion would be judged under a somewhat looser standard than in the post-Roe pre-Casey era, laws that only impede that decision—as the ambulatory surgical center requirement and the admitting privilege requirement do—are, ipso fact, unconstitutional undue burdens.