The Supreme Court Just Hinted It Maybe Won’t Overturn Roe?

…according to the push alert I just got from the New York Times.

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The assumption going ever since Brett Kavanugh was confirmed has been that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe at the first chance it got. The swing Justice, with the retirement of Anthony Kennedy, became John Roberts, an arch conservative but also the closest thing the court has to a political lily blowing in the judicial wind. 

This is all still true, but there has been a development:

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a Louisiana law that its opponents say could have left the state with only one doctor in a single clinic authorized to provide abortions.

The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s four-member liberal wing.

According to the NYT push alerts that I received on my phone a few minutes ago, this seems to indicate that Roberts might not be so quick to join the anti-Roe brigade and upend everything. But according to my colleagues at Mother Jones who know more about this than I do but are not near a computer right now and cannot write this post themselves, this doesn’t mean Roe is safe. It merely gives a reason for hope. 

People didn’t expect Roberts to side this way, but it doesn’t mean he’ll do it again. 

But for now, good news!

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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