Listen Live: Supreme Court hears arguments in fast-tracked Texas abortion ban cases
CBSN
Washington — The Supreme Court is convening Monday to hear oral arguments in a pair of cases challenging a Texas law that bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, kicking off a consequential month for the high court that culminates with a case that abortion advocates warn is the biggest threat to reproductive rights in decades.
The high court is hearing arguments in the disputes — one brought by the Justice Department and a second from abortion providers in Texas — just 10 days after agreeing to jump into the ongoing legal battle over the law, compressing a process that typically spans months into a matter of days. It's unclear whether the justices will issue a decision with the same speed, and the law, the nation's most restrictive, remains in effect while the proceedings play out.
The Texas measure at issue in the disputes prohibits abortions after embryonic cardiac activity is detected, usually at about six weeks and often before a woman is aware she is pregnant. But the justices will not be deciding the law's constitutionality, although the Justice Department and abortion providers argue the ban conflicts with its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.