Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf
Page Number: 92.0

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

11 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

at 11).

Why?  Two words: “changed circumstances.”  Id., at ___ 
(slip op., at 13).  According to the Court, the pre-enforcement
facial  challenge  was  not  the  same  “claim”  as  the  post-
enforcement  claim  because  the  “postenforcement  conse-
quences” of the challenged Texas law were “unknowable be-
fore [the law] went into effect.”  Id., at ___ (slip op., at 14)
(emphasis added); see also ibid. (“[I]t was still unclear how 
many clinics would be affected”); id., at ___ (slip op., at 12) 
(discussing “new material facts”); id., at ___ (slip op., at 14)
(recounting “later, concrete factual developments”).

The  present  case  is  in  the  same  posture  as  the  pre-
enforcement facial challenge to the Texas law, and it should
therefore  be  obvious  that  this  Court’s  decision  in  Whole 
Woman’s Health is not controlling. 

B 
1 
Aside from suggesting that Whole Woman’s Health is dis-
positive, the plurality and THE CHIEF JUSTICE provide one
other  reason  for  concluding  that  Act  620,  if  allowed  to  go 
into effect, would create a substantial obstacle for women 
seeking abortions.  Pointing to the District Court’s finding
that the Louisiana law would have a drastic effect on abor-
tion  access,  June  Medical  Services,  LLC  v.  Kliebert,  250 
F. Supp.  3d  27,  87  (MD  La.  2017),  the  plurality  and  THE 
CHIEF JUSTICE note that findings of fact may be overturned
only if clearly erroneous, and they see no such error here. 
Ante, at 17 (opinion of BREYER, J.); ante, at 15–16 (opinion 
of ROBERTS, C. J.).  In taking this approach, they overlook 
the flawed legal standard on which the District Court’s find-
ing  depends,  and  they  ignore  the  gross  deficiencies  of  the 
evidence in the record. 

Because the Louisiana law was not allowed to go into ef-
fect for any appreciable time, it was necessary for the Dis-
trict Court to predict what its effects would be.  Attempting