The Supreme Court may have accidentally announced the outcome of a major abortion case on Wednesday, in the clash between Idaho’s near-total ban and a federal law requiring emergency care. Bloomberg Law reported that it had obtained a copy of the document, which the court said was accidentally posted on its website and has since been removed. To be clear, the court hasn’t issued an official ruling yet, so there’s only so much we can read into it at this point.
Bloomberg Law reported:
A spokesperson for the court said the opinion has not been released, that it was posted inadvertently and briefly uploaded to the court’s website, and that it will be released in due course.
The court would vote 6-3 in favor of the justices, according to the Bloomberg Law filing Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch disagree. The document includes separate writings from the justices, including from Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who wrote that the outcome “is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho. It is a delay” and that “while this court drags its feet and the country waits, pregnant people experiencing medical emergencies remain in a precarious position because their doctors remain in the dark about what the law requires.”
Again, the court has not actually issued a judgment yet and we do not know whether the document made available was the final judgment. So we don’t know if this will actually be the outcome or how the decision could look different or completely different than in the prematurely posted document. But if this is the outcome, Jackson’s separate writing shows that this wouldn’t be a victory for abortion rights either, even if it doesn’t rule in Idaho’s favor.
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This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
