Justice Kavanaugh’s first test on abortion comes this week
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...naughs-first-test-on-abortion-comes-this-week
When Supreme Court Justices meet in conference Friday, Oct. 12, two states, Kansas and Louisiana, will eagerly be waiting to see whether the court will hear two abortion-related cases.
The cases were originally scheduled for the justices’ first conference of the term at the end of September, but have been rescheduled twice so far, presumably to wait for a ninth justice. With the addition of Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Monday, the Court may now have the fourth vote needed to take them up.
The cases are Andersen v. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and Gee v. Planned Parenthood of Gulf Coast. They both ask the same question: Does the Medicaid Act allow individual patients to sue their state in federal court to ensure that they can receive Medicaid benefits from their preferred provider of choice, in these cases, Planned Parenthood? The answer to that question will determine whether states are forced to fund abortion providers under their Medicaid programs.
These cases represent the first chance Kavanaugh will have to weigh in on an issue affecting abortion. How the Supreme Court handles these cases with a 5-4 conservative majority will be a key indicator of how the new Court will engage on issues relating to abortion, including perhaps even whether the court might be open to revisiting Roe v. Wade in the future.........(SNIP)
