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Court takes 2nd abortion ban case

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 20, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider a second Bush administration appeal that seeks to reinstate a federal ban on what opponents call partial-birth abortion.

Justices had already said they would decide this fall whether the law is unconstitutional.

The court will review a pair of cases from lower courts that struck down the law. Those courts are the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Solicitor General Paul Clement, the Bush administration's lawyer before the court, had urged justices to put the 9th Circuit case on hold until they ruled in the 8th Circuit appeal. Instead, justices said they wanted to take up both.

The 8th Circuit case focuses on the law's lack of a health exception for a mother. The San Francisco-based appeals court found the law unconstitutional because it imposes "an undue burden" on a woman's right to choose to end her pregnancy.

Congress had voted in 2003 to prohibit the type of abortion, generally carried out in the second or third trimester, in which a fetus is partially removed from the womb and its skull punctured or crushed.

The law was challenged on behalf of physicians who could be sentenced to up to two years in prison for violating the law.

Justice Samuel Alito is expected to be a key vote in the case because the court had split 5-4 in 2000 in striking down a state law barring the same procedure because it lacked an exception to protect the health of the mother.

Other action by the court

- It ruled 9-0 that statements made by crime victims to 911 operators or police during emergencies can be used in court even if those victims do not testify at trial. In a pair of cases, the justices gave a nod to the difficulties of prosecuting domestic violence cases.

- It rejected an appeal from Holocaust survivors in the United States who say they have been cheated out of a fair share of a $1.25-billion settlement over looted assets. Justices had been asked to review a federal judge's decision to split up the money in part based on need. Under the formula, survivors living in the former Soviet Union could get more money than those in California or Florida. The appeal stems from a 1998 settlement between survivors and Swiss banks.

- It refused to block part of the 6-month-old Medicare prescription drug program, a defeat for states that say they may get stuck with the bill. Justices declined without comment to temporarily stop part of the law that added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. The court also said that the fight belonged in a lower court.

n It ruled that California parolees can routinely be searched by police as a condition of their release from prison. By a 6-3 vote, justices said the 1996 law is a legitimate attempt by state officials to deal with a large population of repeat offenders who pose a danger to public safety.

[Last modified June 20, 2006, 07:03:28]