ayotte hearings started today

(Activists on both sides outside the Supreme Court today.)

Arguments on the Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England started today. (An AP article)

I'm cautiously optimistic. After all, the article starts out with this:

The Supreme Court wrestled Wednesday with a New Hampshire law that requires a parent to be told before a daughter ends her pregnancy, with no hint the justices were ready for a dramatic retreat on abortion rights under their new chief.

John Roberts, newly appointed Chief Justice, of course, was ignorant, not quite understanding that SCOTUS cases set precedents for the entire country to follow, and while they may be based on specific individual cases, have repercussions far, far exceeding said individuals. He was complaining that the specific case didn't involve a "medical emergency," which is the main contention against the parental notification bullshit laws in New Hampshire, but I suppose he could've been worse...

Scalia, too, was not exactly understanding, basically arguing that the requirement of a judge's permission to override the parental notification thing "takes 30 seconds," and so, does not constitute an undue burden.
Jennifer Dalven (one of my new heroes) argued against this in a filing by PPNNE, though: "In an emergency, a woman needs to go to the hospital not a courthouse."

Most of the other justices, though, actually did their jobs and critically looked at the information presented. Let's just hope that most of them have working consciences. Unlike Scalia.


Well, it should be interesting, at least...........