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BY MICHELE GOODWIN | Shortly before midnight on September 1, the Supreme Court issued an unsigned, one-paragraph opinion letting stand the Texas abortion ban S.B. 8—otherwise known as the “Texas Heartbeat Act,” which essentially guts access to abortion in Texas while technically preserving Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In other words, the Supreme Court permitted the evisceration of Roe without any constitutional analysis.
With this ruling, the Supreme Court’s so-called shadow docket can no longer be denied, nor can its increasingly unusual manner of judicial review be ignored. Both raise concerns about the rule of law and independent judicial review, not to mention the legitimacy and credibility of the U.S. Supreme Court.
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