Big news this morning: for the first time, the Supreme Court has upheld a ban on a specific abortion procedure, voting 5-4 to disallow an appeal to the federal ban on partial-birth late-term abortions:
The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench.
The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.
The opponents of the act "have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion.
The decision pitted the court's conservatives against its liberals, with President Bush's two appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, siding with the majority.
Partial-birth abortions make up a small percentage of all abortions in the United States, but this is a big victory for the pro-life groups. This will energize them, now that Bush's appointees have delivered on this issue, and will probably move forward to try and overturn Roe v. Wade. For their part, we can probably expect NARAL, NOW, and the DNC to make this a major point in their fundraising letters from here on out. In the broader analysis, I wouldn't suspect this to indicate a substantial shift in the Supreme Court's thinking. The majority decision concluded the reason for upholding the ban was the rarity of the procedure and its small impact on abortion overall. As the bench stands now, there would probably no chance of them voting to overturn Roe. Additionally, there's no evidence to suggest that Roberts or Alito would support overturning Roe if the situation arose.
UPDATE: Brendan Loy notes some confusion at the AP. More thoughts from the SCOTUSblog.
UPDATE: Matt Drudge has reactions from the presidential candidates:
HILLARY: 'Erosion of our constitutional rights'...
GIULIANI: 'I agree with it'...
OBAMA: 'I strongly disagree'...
ROMNEY: 'A step forward'...
MCCAIN: I'm very happy...
EDWARDS: 'I could not disagree more strongly'...
UPDATE: See this for the reaction from the Kos Kids, who seem to find the ruling a Catholic conspiracy.
UPDATE: Thursday's Argus Leader has reactions from the big names in South Dakota, and also note that Bill Janklow, Tom Daschle, and Tim Johnson voted for the federal ban on partial birth abortions in 2003.
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