How will recent rulings impact America?
Some 26 states will enact tough new anti-abortion laws following the Supreme Court’s majority decision to uphold a Mississippi abortion ban after the 15th week of pregnancy, and reverse Roe v. Wade. Orthodox Jewish organizations and other pro-life forces welcomed the decision, amid nationwide protests by pro-choice groups. Expect this to become a hot-button campaign issue in local races that pit a progressive Democrat against a conservative Republican, but it seems unlikely to dwarf voters’ greater concerns over the economy, health, and personal security.
The court’s conservative majority overturned a 1911 New York state law that required an owner of a concealed weapon to show “proper cause” for his gun license. Justice Clarence Thomas authored the majority opinion after reviewing some 700 years of historical sources. He agreed that states may pass “some well-defined restrictions on the right to carry firearms in public,” but argued that “there was no historical requirement that law-abiding citizens show the kind of special need for self-defense required by New York law.” The Second Amendment will always be open to interpretation and reinterpretation, and in an upcoming case, Whitaker v. District of Columbia, the court will decide whether law enforcement authorities can make a “judgment call” to revoke someone’s gun license if they suspect the gun owner exhibits “a propensity for violence or instability.”
Many rural towns in sparsely populated Maine are too small to support a high school. The state subsidizes funding for parents who send their children to out-of-town private or public schools, but not to religious schools. Some religious-school parents argued that the disparity was discriminatory, and the Supreme Court sided with them. Writing for a 6-3 majority, Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that “once a state decides to subsidize private education, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.” The precedent stems from a 1947 Supreme Court ruling that New Jersey school boards must reimburse parochial school parents for school transportation.
Maury Litwack, executive director of the TEACH Coalition, applauded the ruling: “This is a huge opportunity to examine current services that up until now have been provided for public schools but not to our yeshivos.”
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