Birth control, race, abortion top agenda for Supreme Court

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Abortion, birth control and race are among the most divisive issues the Supreme Court will confront over the next nine months, amid a presidential election campaign in which some candidates are talking pointedly about the justices and the prospect of replacing some of them in the next few years.

The justices are returning to the bench Monday for the start of their new term and their first public appearance together since a number of high-profile decisions in June that displayed passionate, sometimes barbed, disagreements and suggested some bruised feelings among the nine judges.

The three-month break probably is a good thing, Justice Samuel Alito noted in a speech at the University of Kentucky last month. By late June, “We tend to be kind of angry with each other,” Alito said.

No single case before the justices in the new term holds the significance of the court’s 5-4 decision in June that extended the right to marriage to gay and lesbian couples nationwide.

But the author of that opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy, probably will play a similarly decisive role in the most important cases to be heard by the court. “On issue after issue, Kennedy provides the deciding vote,” said conservative commentator Ed Whelan, no fan of Kennedy.

The court’s lineup already includes, or likely will:

Regulation of abortion clinics in Texas that could leave large parts of the second-most populous state without any abortion providers.

Yet another battle over President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, involving the religious rights of faith-affiliated colleges, hospitals and charities and the provision of no-cost birth control to women covered by those groups’ health plans.

Another round from the University of Texas over the consideration of race, among many factors, in college admissions.

A challenge over drawing electoral districts in Texas that could affect representation of immigrant-heavy urban areas.

A fight to strip labor unions that represent government workers of their right to collect fees from nonunion employees who benefit from the unions’ work in collective bargaining.

Obama’s actions on immigration and challenges to state restrictions on voting rights are two other major issues percolating through the lower courts that could reach the Supreme Court in time for resolution this term.

Commentators on the left and right say the lineup of cases suggests that conservatives will win more often than they will lose over the next few months, in contrast to the liberal side’s success last term in gay marriage, health care and housing discrimination, among others.

“This term, I’d expect a return to the norm, in which the right side of the court wins the majority, but by no means all of the cases,” said Georgetown University law school’s Irv Gornstein.