Stuart Buck thinks the Ayotte decision will actually turn out to be hugely important, especially in future abortion cases, because of its conclusion that federal courts have inherent power to alter or narrow unconstitutional state statutes rather than strike them down wholesale. I’m not sure I’m entirely comfortable with this outcome – which would seem to encourage more rather than less intrusion by federal judges into the state legislative process – but it would be ironic, after all the hue and cry about the precarious balance of the court on abortion issues, if a major blow wound up being struck in favor of abortion restrictions by a unanimous opinion written by a basically lame-duck Justice O’Connor. Read Stuart’s whole analysis to see where he goes with this.