US Supreme Court Enters Culture Wars with Abortion, Gun Cases

The U.S. Supreme¹ Court is placing itself in the middle of the culture wars in America.

Over the next year, the nation's highest court will hear cases on the divisive issues of abortion² and gun rights. The decisions will have far-reaching impacts on American life.

With three justices named by former President Donald Trump³ on the nine-member court, conservatives now have a five-justice majority without the vote of Chief Justice John Roberts.

Kent Greenfield is a law professor at Boston College. He said the Trump-appointed justices represent "not only a shift of ideology⁴ but a shift of power. There are five justices to right of Roberts." He told The Associated Press, "What that means is that the chief is not in control of the court anymore."

Last week, the court agreed to review Mississippi's law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy⁵. At least 12 other states have passed similar laws, with the hope it would be legally challenged and brought before the Supreme Court. Just on Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law banning abortions⁶ once a fetal heartbeat is discovered. Heartbeats in fetuses⁸ can be found as early as six weeks before a woman knows she is pregnant.

If the Mississippi law were upheld, it would all but overturn the 1973 Roe⁹ v. Wade¹⁰ decision that legalized abortions nationwide.

Carrie Severino is head of the Judicial¹¹ Crisis Network. The organization spent tens of millions of dollars supporting the confirmation¹² of Trump's Supreme Court nominees¹⁴.

She said, "Having Trump's nominees on the court has made a real impact. It's exciting to see a solid majority of the court committed to interpreting the Constitution as it's written."

On April 26, the court agreed to hear a case that challenges New York's law that restricts carrying hidden handguns in public. The National Rifle Association, a powerful gun rights organization, is supporting the challenge.

The two cases will be argued and decided¹⁵ during the court's next term, which goes from October to June 2022. A decision to hear a case takes just four votes and is no guarantee of its decision. But on guns and abortion, the Supreme Court with fewer conservative justices passed up many chances to hear similar cases.

Other cases in the middle of the U.S. political divide may come before the court over the next year. One is a challenge to affirmative action in college admissions, which involves Harvard. Cases may also come before the court that challenge new laws in Republican-led states that make it harder to vote.

Rulings could affect elections

The court will likely make its rulings on guns and abortion before next year's mid-term elections that will decide whether the Democrats¹⁶ remain in control of Congress.

Some experts say rulings that favor conservatives may help liberal Democrats in the 2022 elections.

Tom Clark is a political scientist and Supreme Court expert at Emory University. He told the Reuters news agency, "I think the most likely outcome is that the Supreme Court will make conservative decisions in these cases, favored by the political right."

A ruling overturning or weakening Roe v. Wade likely would be viewed as a political decision by the court, Clark said. It could help Democratic candidates win votes from political moderates and women.

He added, "Taking something away from people is more angering than giving them something they've been asking for."

A Reuters/Ipsos poll of American voters last year found that 76 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents thought, "abortion should be legal in most cases." That is compared to 40 percent of Republicans.

John Malcolm is a legal expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. He said the rulings could bring out more conservative voters as well.

"Pro-life conservatives - and there are a lot of them out there - are going to be galvanized to say... we need to elect pro-life legislators," Malcolm said.

Future of the court

The gun and abortion rulings could also be very important to the future of the court itself.

On April 9, President Joe Biden formed a committee to make recommendations for possible changes to the court. The committee will research topics like increasing the number of justices beyond nine or ending lifetime terms for justices. Both reforms could help end the conservative majority.

Liberal activists¹⁷ remain very angry that Trump was able to make three appointments to the high court. One came after the Senate under Republican control blocked former Democratic President Barack Obama's nominee¹³ in 2016 from even being considered.

Another came last September, just before the 2020 presidential election. Trump nominated conservative Amy Coney Barrett to the court after the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, creating the super-majority.

Trump himself said back in 2016 that if he had three appointments to the court, "Roe would be gone."

Words in This Story

abortion — n. a medical procedure used to end a pregnancy and cause the death of the fetus⁷

shift — v. to change or to cause (something) to change to a different opinion, belief, etc.

challenge — v. to say or show that (something) may not be true, correct, or legal

uphold — v. to judge (a legal decision) to be correct : to decide not to change (a verdict)

overturn — v. to decide that (a ruling, decision, etc.) is wrong and change it

interpret — v. to explain the meaning of (something)

affirmative action — n. the practice of improving the educational and job opportunities of members of groups that have not been treated fairly in the past because of their race, sex, etc.

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

5 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

6 abortions   

n.小产( abortion的名词复数 )；小产胎儿；（计划）等中止或夭折；败育

参考例句：

• The Venerable Master: By not having abortions, by not killing living beings. 上人：不堕胎、不杀生。 来自互联网
• Conclusion Chromosome abnormality is one of the causes of spontaneous abortions. 结论：染色体异常是导致反复自然流产的原因之一。 来自互联网

7 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。

8 fetuses   

n.胎，胎儿( fetus的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• DNA was extracted from fetuses at mid-gestation, about 10 days past conception. DNA从受孕大约10天后的中期妊娠胚胎中提取。 来自互联网
• Brucellosis is a disease that causes fetuses to abort in cattle. 普鲁士菌病是一种可以导致牲畜胎儿夭折的疾病。 来自互联网

9 roe   

n.鱼卵；獐鹿

参考例句：

• We will serve smoked cod's roe at the dinner.宴会上我们将上一道熏鳕鱼子。
• I'll scramble some eggs with roe?我用鱼籽炒几个鸡蛋好吗？

10 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

11 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

12 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

13 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

14 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

15 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

16 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》