Taking liberties
DAHLIA LITHWICK
T hroughout most of last year, reproductive rights activists could not have been faulted for believing they had won America’s abortion wars once and for all. In February, Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court’s most vociferous pro-life justice, died unexpectedly, leaving a court often lodged at 5-4 on social issues in a new 4-4 equipoise. Hillary Clinton was ahead in the polls for the presidential election and it looked like she would soon be able to fill his seat and perhaps two others with pro-choice justices who would then control the court for decades.