Amy Howe:

Yes back in 2016 after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court by a vote of 5 to 3 struck down a Texas law that requires doctors who perform abortions in Texas to have what's known as admitting privileges — the right to admit their patients at local hospitals. Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the court's four more liberal justices in striking that law down.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit earlier this year upheld a very similar law in Louisiana. So the abortion providers asked the Supreme Court to step in and block the law temporarily to give them time to appeal. And Justice Kennedy has retired since then was replaced by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The court, when it announced it was going to take up the Louisiana case, agreed to hear a cross appeal from the state that said that we also think you should weigh in on whether or not the abortion providers have the legal right to challenge this health and safety law at all and so that's going to be an interesting issue to watch. It could give the Supreme Court potentially an off ramp to avoid deciding whether or not the Louisiana law itself is constitutional and what happens in Louisiana if for example this law is upheld.