Miranda rights, abortion, Second Amendment: These are the cases the Supreme Court ruled on this week with major implications
By Shawna Mizelle, CNN
The US Supreme Court handed down a bevy of decisions this week that will affect Americans across the country.
The rulings from the nation’s highest court range from topics such as gun rights to Miranda rights. The most notable ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade and upended constitutional protections on abortion, came down on Friday as the court heads into summer recess.
Abortion
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, struck down the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that federally protected a woman’s right to have an abortion.
The decision was long anticipated after a leaked draft of the ruling was obtained by Politico in May. The court’s ruling leaves abortion rights to be determined at the state level. Several GOP-led states have already moved to enact statewide bans following Friday’s ruling.
Miranda rights
The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that suspects may not sue officers who fail to inform them of their right to remain silent for damages.
It means that the failure to administer the warning will not expose a law enforcement officer to potential damages in a civil lawsuit. It will not affect, however, the exclusion of such evidence at a criminal trial.
Second Amendment
The Supreme Court struck down a New York gun law enacted more than a century ago that placed restrictions on carrying a concealed handgun outside the home. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his 6-3 majority opinion that the Constitution protects right to carry a gun outside the home.
The opinion changes the framework that lower courts will use going forward as they analyze other gun restrictions, such as weapons bans in California or the gun safety bill President Joe Biden signed into law Saturday.
Firing squad
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a death row inmate in Georgia, who is challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol and seeks to die by firing squad — a method not currently authorized in the state.
The court said the inmate could bring the challenge under a federal civil rights law that allows individuals to seek remedies when their constitutional rights are violated. The decision could make it easier for inmates to challenge their potential execution method.
Voter ID
The Supreme Court said on Thursday that two Republican leaders of the North Carolina legislature could step in to defend the state’s voter ID law even though the state’s attorney general, a Democrat, is already doing so.
The opinion will make it easier for other state government officials to intervene in some instances in lawsuits when the state government is divided.
Medicare
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the approach taken by the Department of Health and Human Services in calculating certain Medicare payments for hospitals that serve a large number of low-income patients.
The legal challenge targeted HHS’ interpretation of the formula used to calculate Medicare’s disproportionate share hospital adjustments, known as DSH payments.
The high court said the agency did not misinterpret the law with a policy it rolled out in the mid-2000s that dictated the payments hospitals received for treating a disproportionate share of low-income patients.
Religious school funding
The Supreme Court said Tuesday that Maine cannot exclude religious schools from a tuition assistance program that allows parents to use vouchers to send their children to public or private schools.
The 6-3 ruling is the latest move by the conservative court to expand religious liberty rights and bring more religion into public life, a trend bolstered by the addition to the bench of three of former President Donald Trump‘s nominees.
“Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “Regardless of how the benefit and restriction are described, the program operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.”
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CNN’s Ariane de Vogue, Tierney Sneed, Tami Luhby and Chandelis Duster contributed to this report.
