Arizona Horizon’s annual U.S. Supreme Court preview

In our annual U.S. Supreme Court preview, we took a look at some of the more noteworthy cases coming up before the high court along with an analysis of other aspects involving the U.S. Supreme Court.

ASU Law Professor Paul Bender and Stephen Montoya, partner at Montoya, Lucero and Pastor, joined Arizona Horizon to discuss what we can expect from the Supreme Court this session.

This year there have been no blockbuster cases such as the Roe V. Wade case was overturned last year.

Talking about the courts’ reputation, is it good that there weren’t any blockbuster cases this year?

“I’m really disappointed with especially the chief justice. He just seems to think everything is fine and there’s nothing for the court to worry about, there’s a lot for the court to worry about,” Bender said.

“The reputation of the court is at an all-time low. I think rehabilitation is needed, I think more than rehabilitation is needed, I think intervention is needed and I really wish that Congress would pass a law depriving the court of jurisdiction in any case in which a member of the court, had a conflict of interest under the Code of Judicial Conduct that binds all other federal judges unless the court substituted the conflicted member with a member of the United States Court of Appeals,” Montoya said.

Bender and Montoya also discussed a notable abortion case and the court-order restriction on the drug mifepristone.

Mifepristone is a drug that blocks the hormone progesterone which is needed for a pregnancy to continue.

The people who brought this lawsuit are doctors who are opposed to abortion. Their main concern is that mifepristone doesn’t always work and if something were to happen to the patient, they may get involved.

“Their standing is that they don’t want to be bothered by the fact that other people are using this drug. It is a very very weak standing argument,” Bender said.