The Unconstitutional Case the Supreme Court Can’t Stop Talking About

Soon we'll learn whether established legal precedent has any value at all.

Everyone agrees—Mississippi’s lawyers included—that no fetus is viable at 15 weeks. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Fact #1: Everyone agrees—Mississippi’s lawyers included—that no fetus is viable at 15 weeks.

Fact #2: Mississippi passed an abortion ban that takes effect at 15 weeks.

Fact #3: Pre-viability abortion bans have been ruled unconstitutional.

Combined, these three facts mean that courts should have no trouble striking down Mississippi’s ban. And yet! Arguments over that ban have made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where justices have conferenced on whether to hear the case almost twenty times. What gives?

On this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo try to get inside the heads of the justices to make sense of what’s going on—and whether all of their indecision could be resolved with the right self-care routine.

Transcript (PDF)