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Finding your feet in the world while it is being shaken by a pandemic is no easy task. We meet three people who have succeeded despite Covid-19

Even before the pandemic, it wasn't easy being young. Jobs were less secure, education expensive, debt increasing and mental health problems on the rise - challenges that have been magnified by the coronavirus crisis. But this is also a generation that refuses to be defined by its struggles. Here, we meet three individuals who have succeeded despite Covid-19.

Hannah Green, Scarborough
After the trauma of historic sexual assault led to a year of homelessness, 24-year-old Hannah Green moved into her own flat just before the pandemic hit. During the first UK lockdown, she began writing and speaking publicly about her experiences, which led to a job offer. Her first book comes out in April.
"When people ask me where I want to be in five years' time, I honestly have no idea; I never thought I'd make it to 24. At my lowest point, struggling with homelessness and post-traumatic stress disorder, I didn't want to be alive.

Until recently, I never spoke about the abuse I suffered as a child. I archived the trauma, turning to drink, drugs and self-harm to suppress the thoughts in my head. As a result, I ended up with nowhere to live. Over 403 days, I had no fixed address, moving between hostels, temporary accommodation and friends' sofas.

My life started to change while campaigning for the 2019 general election. I met a group of wonderful people, who supported my decision to go sober and find my own flat. I moved in February 2020. For the first time in over a year, I had options. I could choose who to spend my time with and how to spend it.

After a tweet I posted went semi-viral, I was contacted by someone who wanted me to write an article about homelessness. Things took off from there: I began speaking and writing about my experiences, even appearing on the BBC. Articulating my trauma helped to strengthen my self-esteem.

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After speaking at an event for the Centre for Homelessness Impact [an organisation that takes a data-driven approach to tackling homelessness], they offered me a job. As a 'lived experience specialist', my role is to ensure that real people's experiences are at the heart of the research and work that we do.

When lockdown happened, I thought it would be a catastrophe for my recovery. Despite the instability of homelessness, I'd always been surrounded by people. Now I had my own place, but I was cut off from all the resources that had helped me get there.

As the world went into panic mode, however, I felt a strange sense of calm. Unlike many people in the country, I knew how to cope with uncertainty.

I used the time to do what I'd always wanted: write a book. I wanted to tell the human story of homelessness behind the judgmental headlines and impersonal data. My Journey Home is a difficult read, but I hope it provides comfort to those people who are still in that dark place where I once was.

Besides writing, I found an escape in surfing. When I'm in the water, nothing else matters. The physicality of it makes it impossible to think about anything else.

I volunteer for The Wave Project on a surf therapy course that helps kids who are struggling at school or with their mental health. At the start, they're often too scared to speak to anyone. By the last week, they've come out of their shell completely and feel comfortable in the water.

One day, I want to write an authentic children's book on homelessness - one that challenges misconceptions. I've been living in my own place, sober, for over a year now. I may not have a five-year plan, but when I look to the future, it's no longer empty. I see possibilities."
My Journey Home was released on 8 April
Myles Jardine, Preston
Unable to afford university, Myles Jardine, 24, devised an app to make scholarships more accessible for disadvantaged students. His creation was so successful that it was acquired by UCAS during lockdown, to help inform the university admissions process
"I never set out with the intention of starting a business, I was simply looking for a solution to a problem. I think that's how a lot of entrepreneurs start out: thinking, 'What if...?'

Back in 2017, I was studying for my A-levels and applying to university. At £9,000 a year, I would graduate with around £60,000 in debt. That prospect terrified me.

I ended up turning down my university offers and took a gap year. During that time, I stumbled across the idea of scholarships for university. I found there was a wealth of information out there, but it was hard to find, badly structured or out of date. That's when I thought, 'What if?' What if a university scholarship-matching service existed? I came up with a service, initially called GrantFairy.

I never set out with the intention of starting a business, I was simply looking for a solution to a problem

I poured everything I had into building the app, working 18-hour days and sleeping on the floor of my makeshift office. The business was all bootstrapped: completely self-funded. The lack of money was painful at times, but it forced me to work efficiently, to solve problems in the leanest possible way.

The initial success of the app encouraged me to think of other ways to help students. I realised that the application process for international students coming to study in the UK was overly complicated. The next version of the app simplified the student experience, bringing together all application and support services into an easy-to-navigate hub.

I couldn't be prouder when UCAS, the university admissions service, expressed an interest in the app.

Rebranded as Myriad, the sale was negotiated entirely during lockdown. To this day, I've never met the buyers or anyone on the team.

I never knew I was capable of working as hard as I have on the business. I enjoy the challenge of finding a solution to a problem. There was a point where the plan clicked into place, where I realised that I could solve three or four of my problems at once, for very little money.

Mostly, I'm spurred on by positive feedback. I'm always thinking: what is the best experience that I can give a user? What would I want? I personally get great satisfaction from using something that's been designed with care and attention to detail.

Given the wealth of young talent out there, I'm extremely hopeful for the future

The education sector is surprisingly tech-poor; they've tried to digitise something old, rather than create something new. The amount of accessible information on the internet is incredible and I don't think that should be exclusive to a university.

Since the acquisition, I've spoken to a lot of young people hoping to become entrepreneurs. I tell them that all you need is an idea and the drive to make it a reality. What impresses me is their consciousness of the issues that lie ahead, from the climate crisis to unemployment.

I don't think computers or mobile phones are necessarily harmful for young people; they're the greatest sources of knowledge we have. Given the scope for technological innovation, and the wealth of young talent out there, I'm extremely hopeful for the future."

Frankie Davies, London
Frankie, 27, was unemployed when she lost her mum to brain cancer during the first lockdown in 2020. Covid restrictions meant she couldn't be there at the hospice. In the months that followed, Frankie's hobby of making candles turned into a business, Pixie Divine. It has since become award-winning - and Frankie's full-time job
"Losing my mum was the worst thing I've ever experienced, but it's also been the making of me. Everything I've achieved in the past year - she's been the one giving it life.

The doctors found the tumour on my mum's brain in January 2020. Covid delayed her diagnosis, so we didn't know it was cancer until a few months later. She quickly deteriorated, and we moved her into a hospice. At first, we could visit her two people at a time. When the pandemic got worse, we could only speak over FaceTime.

Towards the end, she seemed to be getting better. Now, I realise she was just holding on to come home. She spent two days with us, before passing away.

Losing my mum was the worst thing I've ever experienced, but it's also been the making of me

When she was first diagnosed, I felt completely lost. I came across The Brain Tumour Charity, which ran a carers' support group. Each member was at a different stage of their journey with loved ones' diagnoses and treatment. It was really valuable to see people coming out the other side and moving on.

I wanted to give something to the people in the support group in memory of my mum. I've always been a creative person; I never enjoyed the academic side of school, but loved art lessons.

In lockdown, people were becoming more invested in their homes, so I decided to start making candles. Initially, I sold them within the support group, and received encouraging feedback. One woman told me she'd placed one of my candles on her husband's coffin at his funeral. For me, that's all I wanted: to bring people some sort of comfort.

I had no job, I'd just graduated from university, and had nothing to lose; I decided to upscale the business. At the time, there was a gap in the market for sculpture candles. I thought about what shapes I'd want in my home and founded Pixie Divine.

Before my mum died, I didn't believe in myself. As the eldest sibling, I've had to step up for my family, and that's demonstrated my own capabilities. It's really given me a drive to just live the life that I didn't think I could.

My mum didn't have a lot of money when she was alive. As a legacy, I'm hoping to buy her council house, and I still donate 10 per cent of candle sales to The Brain Tumour Charity.

I'm excited to grow the business, but ultimately, I get satisfaction from helping people. Being from an ethnic minority, you can be written off before you even start. The media rarely shows people of colour excelling in business and in the creative industries.

I'd like to go into schools and talk to young people about entrepreneurship. I'm not a CEO of a huge empire, but I want kids to know there are alternative possibilities. There are so many people with so much to give who have been overlooked by society. My dream is to hire people who were never given a chance to grow."
Featured image: Hannah Green, photographed by Helena Dolby

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Coming of age during Covid-19: the young people bouncing back

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Finding your feet in the world while it is being shaken by a pandemic is no easy task. We meet three people who have succeeded despite Covid-19 Even before the pandemic, it wasn't easy being young. Jobs were less secure, education expensive, debt increasing and mental health problems on the rise - challenges that have been magnified by the coronavirus crisis.

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Currently, I believe there should be a capacity for only 50 states. As a land that had been taken from a culture that had already owned it, we as Americans are continuing to rip innocent civilians' lives in order for more land.

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Trans Community can serve in the military

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Trans Community can serve in the military

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Pentagon Releases New Policies Enabling Transgender People To Serve In The Military

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President Biden signed an executive order repealing the Trump transgender ban in his first week in office, directing the Pentagon to begin the process to allow transgender people to serve openly.

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Australia fires: A visual guide to the bushfire crisis

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How Australia has been battling bushfires during a devastating fire season.

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The Supreme Court is expected to release a decision in the coming days that could provide the first glimpses of how its 6-3 conservative majority will shape the future of LGBT rights.

The case, known as Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, No. 19-123, is a fight over a city policy that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation. Citing the policy, Philadelphia dropped a contract with a Roman Catholic foster agency that said its beliefs didn't allow it to certify same-sex couples for adoption. The agency, Catholic Social Services, brought a lawsuit alleging that Philadelphia violated its First Amendment religious rights.

The dispute was argued in November and a decision is expected before the court's term wraps up at the end of June, which also happens to be Pride Month, a historic time of celebration in the LGBT community. The Supreme Court is expected to release its next opinions on Tuesday, though it does not say in advance which ones are coming.

The coming decision could have broad ramifications that stretch beyond the approximately 6,000 children in foster care in Philadelphia. Lawyers who specialize in LGBT rights have argued that a broad ruling in favor of the adoption agency could also open the door to legalizing discrimination in other spheres where governments hire private contractors to provide public services.

More broadly, the case could provide significant clues about the direction the court will take in future LGBT rights cases. Since the mid-1990s, the nation's top court has gradually expanded protections for gays and lesbians, largely under the leadership of former Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in 2018.

The nine-judge court currently has six Republican appointees, including three nominated by former President Donald Trump.

"This will be a bellwether for how the court, as it's currently comprised, will view these LGBT civil rights cases," said Marques Richeson, a partner at the law firm Squire Patton Boggs who worked on a friend-of-the-court brief in the case on behalf of Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders.

"I definitely think that it's going to set a precedent that in the future either will work to our benefit, or potentially to our detriment, within LGBT communities," Richeson said.

Legal experts emphasize that Supreme Court decisions are often unpredictable, and that there are a range of possible outcomes with more nuance than which side wins or loses.

Jennifer Pizer, the law and policy director for Lambda Legal, the nation's largest LGBT civil rights group, said that it is possible that the court could deliver a narrow win for Catholic Social Services that does little more than force Philadelphia to retool its contract management policies.

Such an outcome would still be worrisome, she said, because of the message it would send, particularly to LGBT children. And, she added, it could encourage more faith-based agencies to bring lawsuits with similar arguments. That's what happened, she said, after the court delivered a narrow victory to a devout Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding in the 2018 case Masterpiece Cakeshop.

But for LGBT activists, there is a much worse possibility looming. Catholic Social Services has argued that the court should use the case to overturn a 30-year-old precedent that has upheld laws that are religiously neutral and generally applicable. Two lower courts cited the case establishing the precedent, Employment Division v. Smith, in upholding Philadelphia's nondiscrimination policy.

"The worst case scenario is that the court upends decades of Supreme Court precedent that says, while religious freedom is an important constitutional principle, it can't trump the equally important principle of nondiscrimination," said Janson Wu, the executive director of GLAD, an organization that defends LGBT legal rights.

During arguments in November, the justices seemed more sympathetic to arguments made by Catholic Social Services than Philadelphia. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, seen as occupying the court's ideological center, suggested that the city was being "absolutist" and "extreme." But the justices hardly touched on Smith, leaving observers to guess at whether the precedent will hold.

Richeson said that a broad ruling in favor of Catholic Social Services could have "grave ramifications spreading far beyond the context of foster care."

"I see it as a cradle to grave sort of issue," Richeson said, saying that such a decision could allow discrimination against society's most vulnerable populations - such as the elderly and the disabled - who rely the most on government services.

"They depend on services like food delivery, Meals on Wheels, affordable housing, transportation, in home nursing care - all of these services and support are often provided by government contractors," he added.

Catholic Social Services, which sued alongside two foster mothers, has argued that the warnings offered by those siding with Philadelphia are overblown.

The organization has also claimed that Philadelphia's nondiscrimination policy is not neutral. In legal briefs, the adoption agency has pointed out that it had never been approached by a same-sex couple seeking adoption certification, and if it had been, it simply would have referred the couple to another group.

"As a Catholic agency, CSS cannot provide written endorsements for same-sex couples which contradict its religious teachings on marriage," Mark Rienzi, an attorney for the agency, wrote in a filing. "The mayor, city council, Department of Human Services, and other city officials have targeted CSS and attempted to coerce it into changing its religious practices in order to make such endorsements."

The tug-of-war between LGBT rights and religious freedom the case presents come as the court appears to be increasing its deference to claims by religious groups.

Last term, the top court sided with religious interests in three significant cases, involving discrimination suits at religious schools, religious groups seeking to deny contraceptive coverage to employees, and taxpayer funding for religious schools. The court has also adopted expansive protections for religion in the context of knocking down restrictions imposed by states to fight off the Covid-19 pandemic.

Regardless of the outcome of the case, some advocates say that the fact that the justices agreed to hear it signals a departure from its past trend of expanding LGBT rights.

"This case, many of us would not have expected the claims made by Catholic Social Services in this case to be taken seriously at all just a few years ago," Pizer said. "It appears to be the result of the three recent changes in Supreme Court membership to provide the votes to take this case, to decide the outcome of this case, and to reshape this body of law in profound and troubling ways."

Still, Pizer said that there's a possibility for a surprise, despite the fact that the three most recent additions to the court have conservative track records.

Occasionally, justices do veer from expectations. After all, Kennedy was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan. And Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump's first pick, authored the court's last major opinion expanding LGBT rights, last June, in a decision that prohibited discrimination against gay or transgender workers. Gorsuch was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's four liberals.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's second appointee, dissented from that opinion. And, in the time since it was handed down, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's third appointee, replaced former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September. Importantly, Gorsuch left open the possibility in his opinion that religious employers could be allowed to discriminate, but said such a question was a matter for "future cases."

Wu said that, over the past few decades, the top court has moved LGBT rights along a "positive trajectory."

"The LGBTQ community has been building a societal and legal norm that LGBTQ people should be treated fairly," Wu said.

"We are not there yet, but we have been moving in the right direction, beginning with the Supreme Court's decision in the Romer case stating that LGBTQ individuals should be able to seek protections from the government," he added, referring to the 1996 decision in Romer v. Evans.

"A loss in this case would be a serious setback in that trajectory," he said.

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Supreme Court will soon release a potentially pivotal decision for LGBT rights

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The Supreme Court is expected to release a decision in the coming days that could provide the first glimpses of how its 6-3 conservative majority will shape the future of LGBT rights. The case, known as Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, No. 19-123, is a fight over a city policy that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation.

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The U.S. Supreme Court heads into the last month of its current term with several major cases yet to be decided including a Republican bid to invalidate the Obamacare healthcare law, a dispute involving LGBT and religious rights and another focused on voting restrictions.

The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, now has 24 cases in total left to decide after issuing two rulings on Tuesday. There also is speculation about the potential retirement of its oldest justice, Stephen Breyer. Some liberal activists have urged Breyer, who is 82 and has served on the court since 1994, to step down so President Joe Biden can appoint a younger liberal jurist to a lifetime post on the court.

In the most notable of Tuesday's decisions, the court unanimously endorsed the authority of Native American tribal police to stop and detain non-Native Americans on tribal land.

The court's nine-month term starts in October and generally concludes by the end of June, though last year it continued into July because of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking during an online event for students on Friday, Breyer hinted at the court's complex deliberations that go into deciding high-stakes cases at this time of year.

"It's complicated by the fact that you are dealing with eight other colleagues. ... You'd better be willing to compromise," Breyer said.

Republican-governed states have asked the court to strike down the Affordable Care Act, a law signed in 2010 by Democratic former President Barack Obama that has helped expand healthcare access in the United States even as Republicans call it a government overreach.

It appears unlikely based on November's oral arguments that the court would take such a drastic step. But if the Obamacare law were to be struck down, up to 20 million Americans could lose their medical insurance and insurers could once again refuse to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions. Obamacare expanded public healthcare programs and created marketplaces for private insurance.

Another major case yet to be decided is one that pits religious rights against LGBT rights as the justices weigh Philadelphia's refusal to let a Catholic Church-affiliated group participate in the city's foster care program because it would not accept same-sex couples as prospective foster parents.

The conservative justices appeared during the November arguments in the case to be sympathetic toward the Catholic group's claim that its religious rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment had been violated. The court's conservative majority has taken an expansive view of religious rights and has spearheaded several rulings backing churches in challenges to COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions.

With various states enacting new Republican-backed voting restrictions in the aftermath of former President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud, the court is preparing to rule in a case concerning Arizona voting limits.

Republican proponents of Arizona's restrictions cite the need to combat voting fraud. A ruling upholding the restrictions could further undermine the Voting Rights Act, a landmark 1965 federal law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.

The court also is getting ready to decide a closely watched case involving the free speech rights of public school students. It involves whether a high school that punished a cheerleader for a foul-mouthed social media post made off campus on a weekend violated her free speech rights under the First Amendment.

The court has taken up major cases on gun and abortion rights for its next term, which begins in October.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Major rulings including Obamacare loom for U.S. Supreme Court

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The U.S. Supreme Court heads into the last month of its current term with several major cases yet to be decided including a Republican bid to invalidate the Obamacare healthcare law, a dispute involving LGBT and religious rights and another focused on voting restrictions.

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A law that should be revised: Drugs

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A law that should be put into in place.

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Journal Information

Public Affairs Quarterly (PAQ) is devoted to current issues in social and political philosophy. It specializes in contributions that examine matters on the current agenda of public policy in light of philosophical reflections and assessments. The journal offers tightly focused philosophical case studies of particular issues in such areas as social and economic justice; public welfare; individual entitlements, rights, and duties; inheritance, taxation, and distributive justice in general; population policy, abortion, and euthanasia; environmental problems; science policy; the social and political status of women, senior citizens, minorities, and other social groups; arms control, war and deterrence; loyalty, duty, and patriotism; ethical issues in medicine, business, and the professions; criminality, criminal justice, and punishment; and similar topics.

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Founded in 1918, the University of Illinois Press (www.press.uillinois.edu) ranks as one of the country's larger and most distinguished university presses. The Press publishes more than 120 new books and 30 scholarly journals each year in an array of subjects including American history, labor history, sports history, folklore, food, film, American music, American religion, African American studies, women's studies, and Abraham Lincoln. The Press is a founding member of the Association of American University Presses as well as the History Cooperative, an online collection of more than 20 history journals.

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The Liberal Basis of the Right to Bear Arms on JSTOR

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Journal Information Public Affairs Quarterly (PAQ) is devoted to current issues in social and political philosophy. It specializes in contributions that examine matters on the current agenda of public policy in light of philosophical reflections and assessments.

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There was hope in the air when state lawmakers from El Paso arrived in Austin for the 2021 Texas Legislature. For them, this was going to be the year they passed substantive firearm restrictions in gun-loving Texas - an unreachable, unfathomable goal for any other Legislative session.

But this wasn't just any session. It was lawmakers' first gathering since 2019, when 30 people were killed and dozens more were injured in back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso and Midland-Odessa. The tragedies were so earth-shattering that they moved Texas' Republican leaders at the time to express an uncharacteristic openness to some gun control measures backed by Democrats.

Gov. Greg Abbott swore to do "everything we can to make sure a crime like this doesn't happen again," proposing a slew of policies to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and other people who should not possess them. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick famously said he was "willing to take an arrow" from the National Rifle Association in order to pursue stronger background check laws.

What happened instead was a whiplash-inducing pivot in the opposite direction. The Legislature, which ended its work Monday, passed House Bill 1927, allowing Texans to carry handguns without a license or training - an expansion of gun rights so divisive Republican leaders in previous years refused to touch it. Law enforcement groups vocally opposed the measure, worried it would endanger officers and citizens and make it easier for criminals to get guns.

Abbott touted that the bill was "the strongest Second Amendment legislation in Texas history." For El Paso lawmakers who spent days with Abbott, Patrick and others brokering gun safety compromises in the weeks following the attack on their hometown, it was a slap in the face.

"We're not living up to the work that we did in the aftermath of those shootings, and quite frankly, it's been forgotten," said El Paso Sen. César Blanco, one of several Democrats who pushed for gun restrictions after the Walmart shooting when a gunman killed 23 people. The shooter posted a racist manifesto online shortly before the attack, admitting he was targeting Mexicans. "My best hope was to pass a lot of these sensible bills to keep our community safe, but [permitless carry] drastically moves the goal posts."

Democrats' legislation fails

After the shootings, both Abbott and Patrick raised concerns about state laws allowing private gun sales between strangers without background checks.

Democrats called for a special session in 2019 to address gun violence, hoping to capitalize while they had Abbott's and Patrick's attention. But the special session never materialized, forcing lawmakers to wait more than a year to file dozens of bills in response to the shootings.

Their efforts floundered. As expected, proposals to restrict assault weapons got little traction in the Legislature. Neither did bills to implement "red flag" laws that allow courts to order the surrender or seizure of guns from people deemed dangerous.

But more frustrating to Democrats was that other measures stalled which Abbott and Patrick had previously expressed support for, including bills to tighten the state's background check laws and crack down on lost or stolen guns.

By the end of the session, the Legislature passed only two of the key gun safety bills written by Midland-Odessa and El Paso lawmakers - one to create a statewide active shooter alert system and another measure called the "lie and try" bill that makes it a state crime to lie to on a background check form to illegally buy a gun. Both have been signed into law by Abbott.

El Paso Democrats and gun control groups say those are good policies but that lawmakers should have done more.

"All [El Paso community members] wanted was something better. All they wanted was some accountability. Yet here we are," state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, told colleagues on the floor before the House approved a deal on the permitless carry bill. "When the doors were closed, I heard lots of promises. I haven't heard them since."

Adding insult to injury for the Democrats, Abbott championed the "Second Amendment sanctuary state" bill that lawmakers passed. It was branded as a way to shield Texas from gun laws that could potentially be passed at the federal level, such as mandatory background checks for private gun sales.

Abbott in 2019 stopped short of Patrick's push for mandatory background checks on private stranger-to-stranger sales, but he suggested the Legislature consider ways to make voluntary background checks for such sales easy and affordable. The "Second Amendment sanctuary state" bill prohibits state agencies and local governments from enforcing certain new federal gun rules - though legal experts say the move is largely symbolic.

Laying out his legislative priorities in February, Abbott made no mention of either shooting.

"We need to erect a complete barrier against any government official anywhere from treading on gun rights in Texas," Abbott said during his speech.

Lawmakers this year also doubled down on gun rights when they approved bills that would eliminate the governor's power to ban gun sales during an emergency, prohibit big state and local government contracts "that discriminate against the firearm or ammunition industries" and make it legal for gun owners to bring weapons into their hotel rooms.

The Legislature also passed a measure which failed in 2019 to allow school boards to let school marshals carry guns on their person instead of being required to keep them locked up, among other gun rights proposals. The House approved a bill to allow election judges to carry a gun in most polling places, though it failed to gain traction in the Senate.

Report Recommendations

Asked how Abbott squares passing policies to expand and protect gun rights with his vows to prevent future tragedies like the ones in El Paso and Midland-Odessa, spokesperson Renae Eze said the governor "took decisive action" after the 2019 shootings, "directing state law enforcement to enhance anti-mass violence measures through eight executive orders and supporting [the Department of Public safety's] safe gun storage campaign."

Roundtable meetings with Democrats and gun safety advocates culminated with Abbott's 2019 Texas Safety Action Report, which recommended the Legislature consider several items including banning "straw purchases," where someone buys a gun for someone else, and cracking down on criminals who try to illegally buy or possess guns.

"Many of those have been taken up by the Legislature this session, including bills that would codify actions taken by the Governor and the Office of Court Administration following the report," Eze said in an email. "The Governor will continue working with the Legislature and taking action, as laid out in the recent Texas Homeland Security Strategic Plan, to protect all in the Lone Star State."

Asked which specific items based on Abbott's report were taken up, Eze did not respond. Of the items recommended in Abbott's report, the "lie and try" legislation - written by Blanco and sponsored by Republican state Rep. Charlie Geren - appears to be the only one that passed.

Before passing permitless carry earlier this month, the Texas Senate rejected a number of Blanco's amendments that would have codified Abbott's recommended gun safety proposals after the 2019 shootings. The amendments would have required background checks for gun sales between strangers, required courts to notify criminals that they may no longer possess a firearm and incentivized the reporting of lost or stolen guns, among other changes.

Patrick, who presides over the Senate, did not respond to requests for comment.

Blanco said he's been perplexed as to why Republicans wouldn't budge on measures Abbott backed.

"We have a report that gives recommendations. I've filed those recommendations as bills, I filed those recommendations as amendments," Blanco said. "These were non-partisan, common sense solutions that came out of the Governor's office. I figured there would be consensus."

Political pressure

The crusade this year to expand and protect gun rights in Texas came as GOP lawmakers fell in line with the most conservative wing of the Republican party, focused on staving off challenges from the right during the 2022 primary elections.

Abbott, Patrick and other Republicans who were initially noncommittal about permitless carry were under immense political pressure this session from conservatives and gun rights advocates, who have long lobbied the Legislature for the bill but struggled to win support.

"By working together, the House and Senate will send Gov. Abbott the strongest Second Amendment legislation in Texas history, and protect the right of law-abiding Texans to carry a handgun as they exercise their God-given right to self-defense and the defense of their families," the bill's author, state Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, said in a May 21 statement.

Abbott has yet to sign the bill into law, though he has said he plans to.

Current law requires Texans to be licensed to carry handguns openly or concealed. Applicants must submit fingerprints, complete four to six hours of training, and pass a written exam and a shooting proficiency test. Texas does not require a license to openly carry a rifle in public.

The measure saw a breakthrough in April when the House passed the permitless carry bill. Patrick initially said the Senate did not have the votes for permitless carry, but he later created a new committee, referred HB 1927 to it and got the bill to the floor, where it passed last month.

"This is our first session since those tragedies, and this is our response: A bill to allow permitless carry," state Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, said on the floor May 23. "A bill to say you don't have to have any training to carry a handgun in the state of Texas. And I can't imagine a worse slap in the face to all those people who have advocated, to the victims and to the family of those victims."

Fueling Texas Republicans' push for permitless carry and other deeply conservative legislation that has historically failed is a byproduct of the 2020 election, when Democrats swept the White House and U.S. Congress but Republicans maintained control of the Texas House, said James Henson, head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

Proponents of what Republicans call "constitutional carry" argued that Texas should follow the lead of at least 20 other states with similar laws on the books.

The current pressure on Republican incumbents to fend off a potential primary challenge in 2022 is "much more immediate than the kind of pressures they felt from an increasingly organized gun safety movement that doesn't have much of a presence or exert much force in Republican politics," Henson said.

A solid majority of Texas voters don't think permitless carry should be allowed, according to the May University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

El Paso lawmakers hopeful

El Paso lawmakers are notching as a "rare win" the passage of the "lie and try" bill that would make it a crime in Texas to lie on a background check form to illegally buy a gun. The action is already illegal under federal law, but the cases are rarely prosecuted.

"We have accomplished something in an environment where we have never passed gun safety measures," Moody said. "While some, including myself, will be critical that there were other things we could have fixed ... because of the culture in Texas politics around weapons, it's going to take time."

Three-fourths of the state's voters believe Texas should require criminal and mental background checks before any gun sales, including those at gun shows and private transactions, according to the May UT/TT Poll. Only 18% oppose such checks.

Republican lawmakers from the Midland-Odessa region, where seven people were killed in a mass shooting four weeks after El Paso, took a different approach to gun violence prevention this session. A bill by Odessa Rep. Brooks Landgraf to establish the Texas Active Shooter Alert System sailed through the Capitol, never receiving a single negative vote. Landgraf said the system could have alerted community members to the gunman's shooting rampage.

"For a large segment of Texans who want to help save lives and prevent mass violence while protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Texans, this is an avenue to do that," Landgraf, who voted in support of permitless carry, said of his bill. "We found a way to thread a needle to actually get something done."

El Paso lawmakers say they aren't giving up.

"This was never about one session; this was about a constant call to action," said Moody, who motioned for the House to adjourn the Legislative session in memory of El Paso shooting victims. "When another tragedy comes to another part of Texas, then more people will come to the conclusion that we have to do more. Whether that's in 2021 or 2025, I'll be there for that conversation."
Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Texas Republican leaders promised action on gun safety after the El Paso shooting. Instead, they passed permitless carry.

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Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. There was hope in the air when state lawmakers from El Paso arrived in Austin for the 2021 Texas Legislature.

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Abortion is something that needs more attention

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Abortion is something that needs more attention

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Lesson of the Day: ‘As Covid-19 Devastates India, Deaths Go Undercounted’ (Published 2021)

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In this lesson, students will learn about the crisis in India and explore ways to help.

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President Joe Biden on Wednesday praised the nation's K-12 education system for fueling America's economic growth for almost a century. But, he stressed, that system may no longer be sufficient as the foundation for future prosperity.

Mr. Biden's American Families Plan is taking aim at an issue that has bedeviled economists as well as millions of families struggling to stay afloat financially: A high school diploma is no longer enough to secure a middle-class life. Under the White House proposal, the nation's K-12 system would be expanded on both ends - from free pre-kindergarten education through a "grade 14," funding two years of schooling before kindergarten and two years of post-high school education through free community college.

There's plenty of economic research that links rising high school graduation rates throughout the 20th century to faster U.S. economic growth. For example, broadening education help women enter the workforce and enabled men to migrate away from agricultural jobs into higher-paying manufacturing and office work. By 1980, almost 9 of 10 Americans in their late 20s had at least a high school diploma.

But in the last several decades, the value of a high school degree has eroded, with Pew Research finding that income for the typical high school graduate sank by almost 10% between the mid-1960s and the mid-2010s.

In contrast, college graduates have enjoyed income gains in the past few decades, leading to a record earnings gap between college and high school grads. The COVID-19 crisis has only exacerbated those disparities, with college-educated workers quickly rebounding as the economy has recovered during the pandemic while less educated workers lose ground.

"We know a good job with simply a high school diploma is almost impossible," said Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education under Barack Obama, during a Wednesday call with reporters to discuss Mr. Biden's plan. "That has to be a jumping-off point. Some form of education beyond high school - a two-year degree, vocational training - has to be the norm."

That may encounter resistance among many families and students, given that almost two-thirds of adults over 25 years old haven't completed a college degree. And half of Americans ages 13 through 29 a high school diploma is sufficient to prepare them for a good career despite the evidence that points to the contrary.

High school graduates are falling behind partly due to what's called "degree inflation," or when employers demand a college degree for a job even though the position doesn't require one. That's impacting jobs ranging from administrative assistants to manufacturing roles, with about 40% of factory jobs now a college degree, double the share in the early 1990s.

In Mr. Biden's view, it's not only competition from U.S. workers with college degrees that are elbowing out high school grads, but advances from other nations.

"The world has caught up, or catching up. They are not waiting," the president said in his Wednesday address to Congress. "Twelve years is no longer enough today to compete with the rest of the world in the 21st Century."

Almost half of high school grads aren't working

The pandemic hit millions of workers, but it particularly hurt those without college degrees. Because they typically work in low-paid jobs that can't be done remotely - such as in restaurants, child careor retail- these workers suffered bigger job losses than college grads, many of who could transition to remote work.

High school graduates have been slower to recover their jobs as the pandemic lingers, creating a so-called K-shaped recovery with two tiers of workers moving in opposite directions. For less educated workers, the economy remains stuck in the mud, while college-educated workers have largely regained their footing.

Almost half of high school grads across the U.S. are today out of the workforce, according to government data. About 55% of adults over 25 with high school diplomas were working in March, compared with 59% before the pandemic and about two-thirds during the late 1990s. By comparison, roughly 7 in 10 college grads are in the workforce, about on par with where they were prior to the pandemic.

Adding two years of free community college to the nation's education system "will keep high-wage jobs in this country," Duncan said, adding that when people are shut out of economic gains, "It's not just an economic loss, I see a real sense of alienation."

The cost to taxpayers of offering free education for two years beyond high school would be about $109 billion over a decade, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis.

$200 billion in pre-K

The other part of Mr. Biden's plan calls for a public investment to fund two years of pre-kindergarten education. Through partnerships with the states, the nation's 3- and 4-year-olds would have access to free, high-quality preschool. That would affect 5 million children and save the average family $13,000 in child care and related household costs, according to the White House.

Research shows that, for individuals, investing in pre-K leads to better long-term education, employment and earnings prospects. One well-known study by Nobel laureate economist James Heckman of the University of Chicago found that low-income children who attended preschool were more likely than those who didn't to finish high school without being suspended and more likely to be employed full time or be self-employed.

Providing free pre-K will also help parents, especially mothers, return to the workforce after millions of people stepped back due to remote-schooling demands and the strain of the pandemic, experts say. About 6.2 million people said they weren't working in March because of remote school or the need to care for children not in school, according to Census data.

The cost to taxpayers for Mr. Biden's pre-K plan would be $200 billion over 10 years, according to Goldman Sachs. But that money would be "very well spent," said Dean Baker, senior economist at the liberal-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research, on the Wednesday call with reporters. "More of these kids will get decent jobs."

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Biden says K-12 education isn't working - calls for free pre-K to "grade 14"

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President Joe Biden on Wednesday praised the nation's K-12 education system for fueling America's economic growth for almost a century. But, he stressed, that system may no longer be sufficient as the foundation for future prosperity.

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Mask and social distancing requirements in courts on the Treasure Coast and around the state can ease significantly as early as later this month after a Friday order from Chief Justice Charles Canady.

Canady issued the order, which permits courts to lift requirements to don masks and distance from others in courtrooms during proceedings, as vaccination rates have increased and official health guidance has changed.

"At this time, effective vaccines for COVID-19 are adequately available in Florida for persons ages 12 and older; almost half of this state's population has been partially or fully vaccinated; and government-issued health standards and guidance provide that fully vaccinated persons do not need to wear face masks or physically distance in most indoor and outdoor settings unless required by federal, state, or local laws, rules, or regulations," the administrative order states.

More: Courthouses end Covid-19 screenings, temperature checks, but face mask needed inside courtrooms

The mask and distance requirements in courtrooms during proceedings can be dropped as early as June 21, but no later than Aug. 2.

Court Administrator Patty Harris said an earlier order lifted the mask and social distancing requirements within the public areas of the courthouse.

"Now, today (Friday) the Chief Justice has lifted the restrictions fully, to not just the public areas of the courthouse, but also within the courtrooms," Harris said. "That would include all proceedings."

Still, this does not mean things are completely back to normal.

"We're still going to offer the procedural masks and the clear face masks, and we're going to social distance to anyone who requests it," Harris said. "You may still see some people wearing masks within the courthouses on a voluntary basis, and we are going to accommodate anyone that requests to social distance within the courtroom."

More: Fort Pierce families seek answers after shooting deaths 2 years ago of 2 men

Harris said it's not clear how many people will choose to wear masks in the courthouse.

"We're still making accommodations for those who are immunocompromised and feel that they need the extra protection," Harris said.

In March 2020, most in-person court events were put on hold following concerns regarding COVID-19.

The order also sets a schedule to end the suspension of a right to a speedy trial.

Speedy trial provisions will resume Oct. 4 for adult defendants taken into custody before March 14, 2020, and for juveniles. For adult defendants taken into custody after March 14, 2020, speedy trial provisions will resume Jan. 3, 2022.

Harris said there is nothing in the directive with respect to whether a person is vaccinated.

"If you want to wear the mask and social distance, we'll definitely make the accommodation," Harris said. "But if you don't, we're OK with that as well."
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on Twitter @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-692-8936. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com If you're a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest breaking news and weird crime coverage.

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Mask, social distance requirements in court to ease this month

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Mask and social distancing requirements in courts on the Treasure Coast and around the state can ease significantly as early as later this month after a Friday order from Chief Justice Charles Canady. Canady issued the order, which permits courts to lift requirements to don masks and distance from others in courtrooms during proceedings, as vaccination rates have increased and official health guidance has changed.

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Palestinian supporters of the Islamist group Hamas gather to celebrate the cease-fire with Israel in Hebron in the West Bank, on May 21, 2021. (Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images)

AL-AMARI REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank - The tattered walls of this camp turned city for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank tell a story about the political loyalties of those who live here.

The smiling visage of a keffiyeh-clad Yasser Arafat. The yellow, rifle-bedecked flags of his movement. The names, etched in black, of those who died in its service.

For decades, al-Amari has been a stronghold of Fatah, the secular and nationalist party that emphasizes diplomacy as its answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But in recent days, the tableau in the camp has shifted: Green flags mark the entrance and graffiti to match emblazons the walls with a single word: Hamas.

"They've given strength to the whole Palestinian cause," said Mohammed Khadier, 16, as friends nodded in enthusiastic agreement. "We consider Hamas our leader now."

For 11 days last month, Israel unleashed a punishing barrage on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, collapsing tunnels, exploding arsenals and killing fighters. But through it all, Hamas continued to arc more than 4,000 rockets into Israel, terrorizing residents of Tel Aviv and other cities.

That performance has earned Hamas newfound admiration among Palestinians not only in Gaza, which it governs, but also crucially in the West Bank, where Israel, the United States and archrival Fatah have long sought to ban the militant Islamist group from operating. Despite the prohibition, Palestinians waved Hamas flags and chanted the group's slogans during demonstrations across the occupied territory last month - scenes that had no precedent in recent years.

The surge in Hamas's popularity has been matched by the plummeting fortunes of the Palestinian Authority, whose president, Mahmoud Abbas, was widely panned - even among fellow Fatah members - for his limp response to Israeli attacks. The fighting, which erupted when Hamas began firing rockets into Israel and then escalated as the Israeli military took the opportunity to strike a vast inventory of targets across the Gaza Strip, left 232 Palestinians dead, including at least 65 children, officials said. A dozen people died in Israel, two of them children.

Politically, "the main loser is the Palestinian Authority. No question," said Nader Said-Foqahaa, director of the West Bank-based Arab World for Research and Development, which monitors Palestinian public opinion. Israel's military might may have been concentrated on Gaza, but "all these attacks are really on Abbas."

That dynamic threatens to further complicate the Biden administration's attempts to re-engage the Palestinian Authority after four years in which it was all but ignored by the Trump administration. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah last month and committed to strengthening Abbas's administration by providing aid money and reopening a consulate in Jerusalem in large part to handle Palestinian affairs. The United States has also said it intends to circumvent Hamas while supporting the reconstruction of Gaza.

Blinken's visit was taken as a hopeful sign by beleaguered Palestinian negotiators that the Biden administration intends to make a serious push for diplomatic progress in the Middle East. Yet it comes amid grave doubts over whether the Palestinian Authority truly can truly represent the Palestinian cause and over whether a resurgent Hamas can continue to be sidelined.

The struggle between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority - which governs parts of the West Bank - and Hamas has long been a barrier to any breakthroughs in resolving the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Although Israel denies it, analysts say the country's right-wing government has liked it that way and recognizes that conflict with Hamas can hobble the Palestinian Authority's attempts at negotiation. That suits Israeli leaders who have long been hostile toward diplomatic efforts that would confront their country with hard choices and could yield a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes "that if Hamas represented the Palestinians, it would be much easier for Israel to say, 'We are not dealing with terror,' " said Amos Yadlin, director of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies.

[Israel's Netanyahu fights to block opposition parties from taking power]

Even before the most recent round of fighting, Abbas was flailing. The 85-year-old heir to Arafat had pledged presidential and parliamentary elections this year for the first time since 2006, only to indefinitely postpone them in April. While the president blamed uncertainty over whether Israel would allow balloting in occupied East Jerusalem, few believed that explanation.

"Very simply, elections meant losing," said Nasser al-Kidwa, a longtime senior Fatah official who broke with Abbas earlier this year and had been challenging him in the vote.

Kidwa, who is a nephew of Arafat's, said he had devoted his professional life to Fatah and the cause of a democratic Palestinian state. But he described the Palestinian Authority-governed West Bank as an autocracy in which there are few checks on Abbas's power internally, even as the president remains beholden to Israel for his ultimate authority.

"Corrupt, ineffective, inept," Kidwa said of the organization he long represented at the United Nations.

Kidwa said in an interview at his office in Ramallah that, especially after last month's conflict, he could understand why Palestinians were looking elsewhere - particularly to Hamas - for solutions.

"It was a confrontation between Israel and the Palestinian people in which the P.A. and Fatah were absent," Kidwa said. "So, we deserve it."

Osama Qawasma, a spokesman for Fatah and an adviser to Abbas, acknowledged that Palestinians had wanted a tougher response to Israel during the conflict than the president felt he could provide. "The people are very angry toward Israel. They want more resistance," he said.

But Abbas is bound by international agreements that Hamas is not, with a commitment to refrain from violence and to administer the parts of the West Bank under his control even amid an Israeli occupation that has spanned more than half a century. The balancing act has rarely been more delicate.

"An intifada can come any time," Qawasma said. "The West Bank is in a very dangerous situation."

[The truce quieted Israeli-Palestinian hostilities - but not the Jerusalem disputes that triggered them]

Israeli security forces are focused on the role Hamas could play in stirring unrest in the West Bank. The Israeli military said this week that security forces had apprehended a senior Hamas official, Sheikh Jamal Al Tawil, who "recently took an active part in organizing violent riots, incitement to violence and reestablishment of the Hamas headquarters in Ramallah."

The growing ranks of Abbas detractors say he himself is responsible for instability in the West Bank by fueling the frustration of the roughly 2.5 million Palestinians living there.

"There is accumulated anger," said Ayman Daraghmeh, a member of the now-dormant Palestinian Legislative Council. "The canceled elections. The iron fist. The corruption. It's like the pressure cooker exploded."

Daraghmeh was elected to the council in 2006 as part of Hamas's slate of candidates. But a violent rift erupted a year later and has still not healed, despite numerous efforts at reconciliation. Fatah was effectively exiled from Gaza as Hamas imposed near-absolute rule, while Hamas was prevented from operating openly in the West Bank.

Daraghmeh said he has been imprisoned multiple times since then, and could be arrested merely for associating with Hamas. (He is, he noted pointedly, an independent.) But he said the group's rise in the West Bank has been unmistakable.

"Hamas," he said, "would win a free and fair election."

Whether the group's improved standing will be lasting remains unclear. There is little indication that Palestinians in the West Bank have suddenly embraced the group's ideology, which remains religiously hard-line even as Hamas has softened some of its rhetoric, including by offering a tacit, if not overt, recognition of Israel's existence, by accepting the idea of a Palestinian state along pre-1967 lines.

"We want a liberal state, a democratic state, an open-minded state," said Qadura Fares, a senior Fatah member who leads an advocacy group for Palestinian political prisoners. "There's no love for Hamas. But anyone who makes the Israelis afraid, he's a hero for us."

That was evident in al-Amari camp, on the outskirts of Ramallah. Khadier, the teen, proudly showed off the marks on his shoulder and ankle where he said he had been grazed by Israeli fire during last month's demonstrations. His arm in a sling, he boasted of a muscle torn while hurling rocks at soldiers.

He verbally cast stones at his own government: Abbas, he said, was "a collaborator. A dog."

At a nearby barber shop, the views among four men in their 20s were no less scathing.
"We are Fatah," said Waleed, 28. "But Fatah has disappeared."

Like the others, Waleed spoke on the condition that his last name be withheld because, he said, he had served time in an Israeli prison - and feared going back. All said they were committed to confronting Israel's occupation, and cheered Hamas's willingness to do the same.

"Whatever Hamas says, they deliver," said 23-year-old Khalil as the barber worked a straight-edge razor down his skull. "It's not only words. It's also deeds."

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Amos Yadlin. The article has been corrected.

Loveday Morris in Gaza City and Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Today's Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.

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Palestinian support for Hamas surges after its confrontation with Israel

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AL-AMARI REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank - The tattered walls of this camp turned city for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank tell a story about the political loyalties of those who live here. The smiling visage of a keffiyeh-clad Yasser Arafat. The yellow, rifle-bedecked flags of his movement.

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The case, arising from a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, could undermine the constitutional right established in Roe v. Wade.

Activists demonstrating for and against abortion rights in front of the Mississippi State Capitol in 2019. Credit... Andrea Morales for The New York Times

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday plunged back into the contentious debate over abortion, agreeing to hear a case that will give its newly expanded conservative majority an opportunity to pare back the constitutional right to abortion established nearly a half century ago in Roe v. Wade.

The new case, concerning a Mississippi law that seeks to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy - about two months earlier than Roe and subsequent decisions allow - is seen by both sides as potentially pivotal in establishing how aggressively the court's new six-justice conservative majority will move to place new constraints on abortion rights.

Supporters of abortion rights denounced the court's decision to take up the case, saying that merely by agreeing to hear it the conservative justices were signaling a willingness to revisit Roe.

"Alarm bells are ringing loudly about the threat to reproductive rights," Nancy Northup, the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. "The Supreme Court just agreed to review an abortion ban that unquestionably violates nearly 50 years of Supreme Court precedent and is a test case to overturn Roe v. Wade."

Backers of the Mississippi law said that it was necessary to protect fetal life and expressed confidence that it would be judged constitutional by the Supreme Court.

"The Mississippi Legislature enacted this law consistent with the will of its constituents to promote women's health and preserve the dignity and sanctity of life," Lynn Fitch, the state's Republican attorney general, said in a statement. "I remain committed to advocating for women and defending Mississippi's legal right to protect the unborn."

The justices will hear the case in their next term, starting in October, and are likely to deliver a decision in the spring or early summer next year, as the 2022 midterm elections are gearing up. The stakes of the case ensure that the abortion debate will remain a political flash point, rallying conservative and liberals alike.

Last summer, the Supreme Court struck down a restrictive Louisiana abortion law by a 5-to-4 margin, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. providing the decisive vote. His concurring opinion, which expressed respect for precedent but proposed a relatively relaxed standard for evaluating restrictions, signaled an incremental approach to cutting back on abortion rights.

But that was before Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September. Her replacement by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative who has spoken out against "abortion on demand," has changed the dynamic at the court, diminishing the chief justice's power to guide the pace of change.

Since the retirement in 2018 of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a cautious supporter of abortion rights, state legislatures have enacted scores of restrictions and bans in the hope that personnel changes at the Supreme Court will spur it to reconsider its abortion jurisprudence.

President Donald J. Trump vowed to name justices who would overrule Roe, and three of his appointees now sit on the court. Two of them - Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh - dissented from the Louisiana decision last year.

The justices considered taking the Mississippi case more than a dozen times during their private conferences before deciding to do so, a possible indication of continued sharp divisions among the court's conservatives about how boldly to address the constitutional status of abortion rights.

The Supreme Court's next term now includes two blockbusters: the abortion case and one on whether the Second Amendment protects a constitutional right to carry guns outside the home.

"The Republican-appointed justices appear to be moving even quicker than analysts predicted to make good on their supermajority status," Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, a progressive advocacy group, said in a statement.

Responding to calls to expand the size of the Supreme Court to counteract recent conservative gains, President Biden has appointed a commission to consider ways to overhaul its structure and processes. Mr. Fallon said the court's docket reflected its lack of concern about the commission's eventual report.

"In opting to hear major cases next term on guns and now abortion," he said, "the Roberts court conservatives have issued their verdict on President Biden's commission: They consider it a complete nothing burger."

The new case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No. 19- 1392, concerns a law enacted in 2018 by the Republican-dominated Mississippi Legislature that banned abortions if "the probable gestational age of the unborn human" was determined to be more than 15 weeks. The statute, a calculated challenge to Roe, included narrow exceptions for medical emergencies or "a severe fetal abnormality."

Lower courts said the law was plainly unconstitutional under Roe, which forbids states from banning abortions before fetal viability - the point at which fetuses can sustain life outside the womb, or about 23 or 24 weeks.

Mississippi's sole abortion clinic sued, saying the law ran afoul of Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that affirmed Roe's core holding.

Judge Carlton W. Reeves of Federal District Court in Jackson, Miss., blocked the law in 2018, saying the legal issue was straightforward and questioning the state lawmakers' motives.

"The state chose to pass a law it knew was unconstitutional to endorse a decades-long campaign, fueled by national interest groups, to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade," Judge Reeves wrote. "This court follows the commands of the Supreme Court and the dictates of the United States Constitution, rather than the disingenuous calculations of the Mississippi Legislature."

"With the recent changes in the membership of the Supreme Court, it may be that the state believes divine providence covered the Capitol when it passed this legislation," he wrote. "Time will tell. If overturning Roe is the state's desired result, the state will have to seek that relief from a higher court. For now, the United States Supreme Court has spoken."

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, affirmed Judge Reeves's ruling. "In an unbroken line dating to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court's abortion cases have established (and affirmed, and reaffirmed) a woman's right to choose an abortion before viability," Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham wrote for the majority.

Judge James C. Ho wrote a reluctant concurring opinion expressing misgivings about the Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence.

"Nothing in the text or original understanding of the Constitution establishes a right to an abortion," he wrote. "Rather, what distinguishes abortion from other matters of health care policy in America - and uniquely removes abortion policy from the democratic process established by our founders - is Supreme Court precedent."

Ms. Fitch, Mississippi's attorney general, urged the justices to hear the state's appeal in order to reconsider their abortion jurisprudence. "'Viability' is not an appropriate standard for assessing the constitutionality of a law regulating abortion," she wrote.

The precise question the justices agreed to decide was "whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional." Depending on how the court answers that question, it could reaffirm, revise or do away with the longstanding constitutional framework for abortion rights.

Ms. Northup, of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents the clinic challenging the Mississippi law, said the last possibility was alarming.

"The consequences of a Roe reversal would be devastating," she said. "Over 20 states would prohibit abortion outright. Eleven states - including Mississippi - currently have trigger bans on the books, which would instantaneously ban abortion if Roe is overturned."

Lawyers for the clinic said the case was straightforward. The law, they wrote, "imposes, by definition, an undue burden."

"It places a complete and insurmountable obstacle in the path of every person seeking a pre-viability abortion after 15 weeks who does not fall within its limited exceptions," they wrote. "It is unconstitutional by any measure."

Previous abortion cases have considered restrictions on who can perform the procedure, what kinds of standards clinics must meet and what methods are permissible. The new case will address a far more fundamental issue, said Father Frank Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life.

"This is not a case simply on regulations of the procedure or the places where it is performed," he said in a statement. "This goes right to the matter of prohibitions on abortion, or, as we would say, protections of the baby."

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Supreme Court to Hear Abortion Case Challenging Roe v. Wade

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The case, arising from a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, could undermine the constitutional right established in Roe v. Wade. WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday plunged back into the contentious debate over abortion, agreeing to hear a case that will give its newly expanded conservative majority an opportunity to pare back the constitutional right to abortion established nearly a half century ago in Roe v.

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