These state supreme court races could decide abortion access and trans rights

Filed 1h ago · Via The Conversation · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Michael Harris · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Thirty-one states hold supreme court elections in 2026, filling more than 60 seats that will shape post-Dobbs abortion litigation and gender-affirming care cases across the country.

In Ohio, North Carolina and Michigan, single seats could flip entire benches from narrow majorities to supermajorities, determining how voter-approved abortion amendments and bans on care for trans minors get interpreted for years.

The U.S. Supreme Court's Skrmetti ruling already lowered the bar for state bans on youth gender-affirming care, pushing the real fight down to state courts that most voters cannot name a single justice on.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Nobody throws a parade for a judicial race, but these are the elections that actually decide what happens to you at the doctor's office. The folks running statehouse campaigns know this, which is why the quiet money flows there instead of into yard signs. A seven-member bench can rewrite a constitutional amendment's meaning without ever holding a rally, and that is exactly the plan.

Source: Read the original at The Conversation → Scored: Pixel Peeker Polka - faster · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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