Supreme Court of US sits on abortion...

From SCOTUS blog: an excerpt:

Monday, June 19, 2006
Orders: Court expands abortion review
Posted by Lyle Denniston at 10:58 AM
UPDATE 1:22 p.m.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review a second case on the constitutionality of the federal ban on so-called "partial-birth" abortions. The Court added a case from the Ninth Circuit Court to one previously granted from the Eighth Circuit. The new case raises a remedy issue that did not appear to be present in the earlier grant, and also poses variations on the constitutional issues at stake in the earlier grant.. It is Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood (05-1382). The Solicitor General had argued against adding the new case to the decision docket, but the city of San Francisco and abortion rights groups contended that the remedy and other substantive issues would be better explored in this case.

The earlier case is Gonzales v. Carhart (05-380), granted review on Feb. 21. It is a government appeal arguing that the 2003 federal law is not invalid just because it lacks an exception to allow the abortion procedure when a woman's health is at risk. The new case raises issues about the alleged vagueness of the federal ban, and about whether it sweeps so widely that it imposes an undue burden on the rights of pregnant women.

The cases will be argued and decided in the new Term starting in October. The Court has not yet scheduled the cases for argument. Presumably, they will be heard back-to-back, but that has not yet been determined.

Wrap...