In a development that came as a surprise to those who watch the U.S. Supreme Court closely, justices on Monday issued no opinions on Texas' ban on abortion roughly six weeks into pregnancy. 

The court's website on Friday indicated at least one opinion on the strict and controversial law would be issued Monday, but that didn't happen. The law will remain in effect in Texas for the time being. 

The only opinion issued Monday concerned Mississippi v. Tennessee, a case involving a dispute over interstate groundwater.

What You Need To Know

  • U.S. Supreme Court justices were expected to issue at least one opinion on Texas' strict new abortion law on Monday. However, that didn't happen, and the law will remain in effect in Texas for now

  • The law, which went into effect in Texas on Sept. 1, bans the procedure once cardiac activity can be detected in a fetus, which is often as soon as six weeks into pregnancy and before most women know they are pregnant 

  • While nothing came down on Monday, the court has put them on a rare fast track. The only opinion issued by the court on Monday involved Mississippi v. Tennesse, a case involving a dispute over interstate groundwater 

  • The court is focused on enforcement of the Texas law, which permits private citizens to sue abortion seekers and anyone who aids them after the specified time period 

The two cases the court has taken up over the Texas law concern its unique enforcement design that has so far evaded judicial review. Those cases were argued Nov. 1, and the court also is working on decisions in the nine cases the justices heard in October.

The court put the Texas cases on a rarely used fast track, raising expectations that decisions would come sooner than the months the justices usually spend writing and revising their opinions. The law has been in effect since Sept. 1.

With Thanksgiving approaching, Monday was probably the last day the court could decide the Texas cases before the justices hear arguments Dec. 1 over whether to reverse nearly 50 years of precedents and hold that the Constitution does not guarantee the right to an abortion.

The case, which centers around Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks, asks the court to overturn the landmark abortion rights decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The Texas law bans abortion once cardiac activity is detected in the fetus, often around six weeks, before some women know they’re pregnant, and it makes no exceptions for rape or incest. 

The focus at the Supreme Court, though, is over the design of the Texas law, which deputizes private citizens to enforce it by filing lawsuits against clinics, doctors and others who facilitate abortions. The court is trying to sort out who can sue to challenge the law and whether a federal court can effectively block the law from being enforced.

Even though the justices have returned to the courtroom for arguments following a 19-month hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, decisions will continue to be posted on the court’s website rather than summarized aloud in the courtroom.

The longstanding tradition of recapping opinions from the bench has produced some notable moments of drama over the years, especially from justices who are reading from their impassioned dissents in major cases.

The building remains closed to the public, with only a handful of outsiders — lawyers who are arguing their case and reporters who regularly cover the court — allowed in the courtroom.