WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — The U.S. Supreme Court begins a new term on Monday and the docket is filled with important cases that could have national implications.
Legal access to abortion is one of the most important issues the Supreme Court will decide this term when it hears the case on a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks without the exception for rape or incest.
Erica Hashimoto with Georgetown Law said the law “violates Roe vs. Wade.”
The court’s decision could have wide-reaching implications. Hashimoto said, “The court can always decide that it’s not going to follow precedent.”
The Supreme Court will also hear a case about the Constitutional right to carry guns in public and whether Washington, D.C. residents should have voting members of Congress.
Senator Paul Strauss currently represents D.C. only symbolically.
“You have 200 years after the American Revolution, taxation without representation,” he said.
The cases the Supreme Court decides without a hearing are getting scrutiny. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said the court is misusing its so-called shadow docket by using it “for more political and controversial decisions.”
Durbin said the new restrictive abortion law in Texas is in effect due to this type of ruling.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) defended the high court, saying it “declined to intervene on exceedingly expedited basis.”
But Democrats believe the court’s political rulings are the reason two recent polls found approval ratings of the Supreme Court have plummeted.