Word: intact
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...court also turned back arguments that the law was too vague and an "undue burden" on the constitutional right. The law's challengers said its imprecision would stop not only "intact D&E" - the controversial process of removing the fetus whole (hence the phrase partial birth) - but also standard D&E, which involves removing the fetus in pieces. Together, the procedures account for most second-trimester abortions. But Kennedy, writing for the court majority of himself, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, said the statute was plenty precise, especially since a doctor couldn't violate it without...
...more practical help to pro-choice advocates may be the majority opinion's suggestion that there's another way to challenge the ban: in a case where a specific woman would probably get sick if she didn't undergo an intact D&E. In this so-called "as applied" challenge, the court could see when the procedure was necessary to protect a woman's health and rule the law unconstitutional in those situations. (As the dissent points out, there may be logistical problems with how this would work in practice). It wouldn't be a total victory for abortion rights...
...second way to attack the law happens to emerge from Thomas' concurring opinion, which also mentions the issue of "whether the Act constitutes a permissible exercise of Congress' power under the Commerce Clause." In other words, even as he supports the intact D& E law, Thomas wonders whether Congress actually can pass such a national ban on an abortion procedure, or whether that's a power reserved exclusively to the states. The issue wasn't raised in this case, but the implication is that the court might strike down the intact law as beyond Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce...
...Both alternatives have drawbacks. In suggesting the "as applied" challenge, the court was also saying it might no longer accept the more general method of challenging abortion restrictions based on the argument that they are unconstitutional on their face. And while a commerce clause argument might cut down the intact D&E law, it might also spell the end to federal laws like the one barring picketing of abortion clinics...
...UC’s Calendar Reform Act calls for both the fall and spring examination periods to be shortened by two days each, with reading periods kept virtually intact. Fall term exams in 2008 would end on Dec. 22, with the break lasting until Jan. 19, 2009. The school year would end on May 12—a week and a half before the date set by the current calendar...