Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every
Speaker 1: day we bring you insight and analysis into the most
Speaker 1: important legal news of the day. You can find more
Speaker 1: episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud
Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. In a ruling today,
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court left in place a block on an
Speaker 1: Indiana law that barred abortions based on race, sex, or disability,
Speaker 1: but made the first move toward giving states more power
Speaker 1: to regulate abortion. Joining me as Bloomberg New Supreme Court
Speaker 1: reporter Greg store So, Greg, tell us about these Indiana
Speaker 1: laws and what the court decided. Yeah, June, as you said,
Speaker 1: the law had two different components to it. One, uh,
Speaker 1: just said that clinics, when they perform an abortion, have
Speaker 1: to dispose of the aborted feat us either by burying
Speaker 1: it or by cremation. And then the second provision had
Speaker 1: to do with um selective abortions, and it it said
Speaker 1: that if your sole reason for having an abortion was
Speaker 1: because of a risk of a genetic disorder or because
Speaker 1: of the sex or or race of the fetus, that
Speaker 1: that was that was illegal. Um. The Supreme Court came
Speaker 1: out differently on those two questions, reinstated the first the
Speaker 1: first provision, and allowed the other provision to the lower
Speaker 1: court ruling that struck down the other provision to stand well.
Speaker 1: Should the fact that the Supreme Court split the decisions
Speaker 1: make some pro abortion rights activists feel a little better.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I would say that's the case. Um.
Speaker 1: The Supreme Court is going to have an awful lot
Speaker 1: of abortion cases to choose from. Uh. It's still quite
Speaker 1: likely the Court will take up a big and important
Speaker 1: abortion case UH sometime in the next term. There are
Speaker 1: a few penning ones, which we can talk about in
Speaker 1: a minute. Perhaps the fact that the Court reached out
Speaker 1: and summarily upheld this one provision involving fetal disposal, UM,
Speaker 1: I think should be a sign of something that abortion
Speaker 1: rights advocates should be concerned about. It is the Court's
Speaker 1: new conservative majority flexing its muscles a little a little
Speaker 1: bit on this controversial topic. Is it surprising, then, that
Speaker 1: only two Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonya Soto Mayor,
Speaker 1: indicated disagreement with the ruling. Yeah, that's I don't know
Speaker 1: if I would say it's a surprise. It's certainly very noteworthy. UM.
Speaker 1: Justice Brier and Justice Kegan, two other liberals, are certainly
Speaker 1: abortion rights supporters. Uh. They are also the two justices
Speaker 1: on the left who tend to be more willing to
Speaker 1: compromise to perhaps join an opinion, um if they can
Speaker 1: can improve some of the wording in it, some of
Speaker 1: the language in it. Uh, And they try to work
Speaker 1: together with Chief Justice John Roberts when they can. Uh.
Speaker 1: They apparently made a tactical decision in this case, or
Speaker 1: seemingly made a tactical decision in this case that there
Speaker 1: wasn't anything to be gained from dissenting, and perhaps behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, Uh, they did change some of the wording
Speaker 1: in the opinion so that it was a bit narrower
Speaker 1: than it might have been. Let's talk about some of
Speaker 1: the other cases. We've been talking about. A case involving
Speaker 1: transgender students access to bathrooms before the Court, and the
Speaker 1: Justice has decided not to take that case. Any indication why, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they didn't give any indication why on this one. Uh,
Speaker 1: this was a case where uh, non transgender students said
Speaker 1: their rights were being violated, their constitutional privacy rights were
Speaker 1: being violated because the school was letting transgender students. The
Speaker 1: school district was letting transgender students UH use the bathroom
Speaker 1: that corresponded with UH their gender identity. UH. The Supreme
Speaker 1: Court did not make any comments in ejecting this appeal.
Speaker 1: They just turned it away. There was, on the surface
Speaker 1: of it, there wasn't a compelling reason for them to
Speaker 1: take it. There wasn't one of these cases where lower
Speaker 1: courts are in disagreement about it. UH. And UH, it's
Speaker 1: perhaps not too surprising that the Court wanted to deduct
Speaker 1: this particular hot button issue. They are going to take
Speaker 1: up transgender rights in another context in the upcoming term. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a good point. They are going to hear
Speaker 1: a couple of cases involving job discrimination and whether federal
Speaker 1: job bias law UH protects gay and transgender workers. That
Speaker 1: law says you can't discriminate on the basis of sex. UH.
Speaker 1: And in both cases, UH, lower courts are in some
Speaker 1: disagreement as to whether UH that covers discrimination on the
Speaker 1: basis of sexual orientation and discrimination on the basis of
Speaker 1: gender identity. That will be one of the biggest, if
Speaker 1: not the biggest case case the court here is next term. Now,
Speaker 1: tell us about this case. The Justice has decided to
Speaker 1: take about whether the parents of a Mexican teenager can
Speaker 1: sue the American law enforcement agent who shot the teenager
Speaker 1: from across the border. Yeah, this case might sound familiar
Speaker 1: to people. The Court has had it before. They kicked
Speaker 1: it back to the lower court. Um, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a as he said, a Mexican teenager. He was on
Speaker 1: the Mexican side of the border. Uh, they were playing.
Speaker 1: He was in a culvert where the middle of the
Speaker 1: culvert is the actual border, but there's a fence on
Speaker 1: the U s side. And he and his friends apparently
Speaker 1: were playing a game where they would ramp to the
Speaker 1: U side, touched the fence, and come back down. A
Speaker 1: border patrol officer agent came upon them. Uh, there was
Speaker 1: an incident, Um, and he ended up shooting the book boy,
Speaker 1: Sergio Hernandez. Uh. The question for the Supreme Court is
Speaker 1: basically whether his family can sue. There is a legal
Speaker 1: doctrine known as Bibbins where the Supreme It has said, Um,
Speaker 1: you can just sue directly under the Constitution for a
Speaker 1: violation of your rights. In some context. That's not a
Speaker 1: doctrine that the Supreme Court. This more conservative Supreme Court
Speaker 1: has suggested it likes very much. Uh So, the question
Speaker 1: is whether this this uh, this particular form of lawsuit
Speaker 1: known as the biddin's lawsuit can apply in this case.
Speaker 1: Just about forty five seconds here, it's approaching this busy
Speaker 1: time of year for you. What Supreme Court decision are
Speaker 1: you awaiting? Most? Let me give you two if I could.
Speaker 1: The one that's certainly got a lot of attention is
Speaker 1: the question of the case involving whether the Trump administration
Speaker 1: can put a question about citizenship on the census. The
Speaker 1: core question for the court is basically whether the administration
Speaker 1: was upfront about its reasons for doing so. And then
Speaker 1: the court has two cases, two very big cases involving
Speaker 1: partisan jurymandering, and the Court could finally tell us whether
Speaker 1: or not, uh it can ever be the case that
Speaker 1: that there's too much partisanship in the voting district uh
Speaker 1: map drawing process. The Supreme Court has never struck down
Speaker 1: a district as being two partisan. And we'll see whether
Speaker 1: or not they're ready to do that. All right, Thanks, Greg,
Speaker 1: get some sleep, you'll need it. That's Supreme Court reporter
Speaker 1: of Greg's Stewart. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: and on bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brasso.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Ye.