“There’s critical work ahead. I want to help do it — I want to help Colorado, I believe in Colorado, I want to serve the people of Colorado,” Weiser told The Denver Post shortly after announcing his candidacy in a morning news release.

Weiser’s early jump allows him to begin raising money immediately, even though the June 2026 Democratic primary is still nearly 18 months away. It also gives him an early chance for voters “to get to know me,” he said — before several other candidates enter the fray.

Weiser, 56, said his campaign will focus on affordability and housing — two issues that are consistently top of mind for Colorado voters — as well as curbing climate change’s impact on the environment and addressing the youth mental health crisis, which he referenced repeatedly during the interview.

His announcement serves as a starting pistol for what will be an extensive 2026 campaign season, and it ends the yearslong shadow campaign that’s been waged quietly by would-be successors to Gov. Jared Polis: Weiser has long been expected to pursue the governor’s mansion after Polis, as has Secretary of State Jena Griswold, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse and Ken Salazar, a longtime Colorado political figure who’s now U.S. ambassador to Mexico.

Several lesser-known Republican, unaffiliated and third-party candidates , but Weiser is the first major candidate of any affiliation to declare his campaign.

A recent early poll of four potential 2026 Democratic gubernatorial candidates showed Weiser in last in terms of support by likely primary voters, behind Neguse, Griswold and Salazar, though the highest share of respondents — 37% — said they were undecided. More voters said they had never heard of Neguse or Weiser than the other candidates.

Of the differences between Weiser and his potential opponents, he said he was proud of his record and said he would run a positive campaign.

Weiser is starting the final two years of his second term as Colorado’s attorney general. He previously worked as the dean of the University of Colorado Law School and as a policy adviser in the Obama administration. He first moved to the state to clerk for a federal judge after graduating from New York University’s law school. He also clerked for two U.S. Supreme Court justices, Byron R. White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

According to , Weiser’s campaign is chaired by former Gov. Roy Romer and co-chaired by former U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter and Fort Collins Mayor Jeni Arndt. His supporters also include several current and former elected officials, including former House Speaker Terrance Carroll and former Senate President Brandon Shaffer.

Weiser, whose mother was born in a Nazi concentration camp one day before it was liberated in 1945, has said he came to Colorado because he looked for clerkships in states that had a baseball team and a Jewish community.

His six years as attorney general have seen his office oversee the distribution of tens of millions of dollars in settlement payments from companies involved in the opioid crisis. He has also joined several prominent national lawsuits and legal efforts, including to block the merger of the Kroger and Albertsons grocery chains, and he’s backed consumer protection litigation against companies including Wyatts Towing and, more recently, controversial companies in the housing market like RealPage and CBZ Management.

Weiser said Thursday that he would support the type of land-use reforms pursued by Polis in recent years that seek to boost development along the Front Range to increase the housing supply. He also would continue his work targeting junk fees and alleged price fixing in the rental market.

When he ran for AG in the 2018 election, Weiser prominently described his plans to combat then-President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and generally to serve as a legal bulwark against the Trump administration.

His pitch for the governor’s mansion will likely turn on those same pledges, as Trump prepares to enter the White House again later this month on a platform of mass deportations and promises of regulatory rollbacks. Indeed, in a call with state House Democrats in early December, Weiser said his office had already begun researching when the military or National Guard could be called out — .

On Thursday, Weiser told The Post that he would “work with anybody” in Washington, D.C., who was willing to collaborate.

But “if there are people who are going to hurt us in Colorado, who are going to undermine our values or threaten people here … I’m ready for those battles ahead,” he said.

Attorney General Phil Weiser is a fierce advocate for Coloradans, whether it����ap protecting consumers from abusive corporations, fighting for our water rights or advocating for this state’s best interests in federal court. We hope Colorado voters give him another four years in office.

Weiser, a Democrat, has struck a good balance between being an aggressive lawyer filing federal lawsuits to protect the interests of Coloradans (like keeping protections for pre-existing conditions as part of the Affordable Care Act) and not being a radical partisan activist (like the Texas attorney general whose lawsuit to nullify Joe Biden’s victory, alleged, without evidence, that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election).

We are proud of Weiser’s work, and he has been working hard.

Of course, District Attorney John Kellner, the Republican in the race, has also been working hard for Coloradans in Arapahoe County. Kellner, by all accounts, has had an impressive two years heading up the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office and a long career before that as a prosecutor and a Marine.

But Weiser, with his even keel, keen intellect, and kind spirit, is the person we want to lead Colorado’s legal team for the next four years.

It is critically important not only for Colorado but for women across this nation that Weiser prevails in federal court in the coming years with regard to maintaining women’s right to reproductive freedom.

Colorado has become a place of refuge for women who can’t get abortions in their home states, and it is vital that Colorado’s next attorney general vigorously defend the right for women to travel across state lines to obtain safe and legal abortions. We need an attorney general who will file a lawsuit if the federal government attempts to limit the decision voters made in 2020 to reject a ban on late-term abortions. Additionally, we need an attorney general willing to protect Colorado doctors and nurses from getting extradited and charged with crimes in other states for performing abortions.

Weiser is the man for that job.

He has supported reproductive freedom his entire career and, had he been on the U.S. Supreme Court, we know that the former clerk for both former Justices Byron White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have seen the folly and the unconstitutionality of stripping pregnant women in this country of the rights conferred by the Bill of Rights that every other American in this country enjoys.

While the most important seat in this state as a protector of pregnant women’s freedom is the governor, there is no question the second most important is the attorney general. Multiple test cases spurred by overzealous prosecutors looking to control pregnant women and imprison Colorado doctors will likely arise in the next four years. Those cases will not be political. They will be about life and death, about freedom and incarceration, and about the future of this great nation as the land of the free.

We need someone like Weiser in the office to head off the worst-case scenario for pregnant women.

Kellner has said that while he is a pro-life candidate who supports the decision to strike down Roe vs. Wade, he will defend Colorado’s abortion laws in the grand tradition of impartial attorneys general like Republican John Suthers, who, as attorney general, successfully defended Colorado’s law limiting gun-magazine capacities against legal challenges.

We appreciate Kellner’s position, but Colorado needs someone in the office at this time who will fight for pregnant women, their medical and personal decisions, and their doctors the way we know Weiser will.

Of course, we overstate the importance of this issue to many Colorado voters and would be remiss if we did not also acknowledge all the other reasons to support Weiser.

He is sailing a narrow channel at the moment, trying to keep Colorado’s water rights intact and out of court while negotiating with the lower-basin states to prevent a catastrophe on the Colorado River. Weiser is treating the tricky waters with appropriate levels of caution and concern.

Weiser has engaged on too many issues for us to name them all here, but we think he was a powerful force in winning multiple settlements with opioid companies to bring money home to this state to fight the addiction epidemic. He then set up a masterful plan to distribute that money to local communities where it will have the most impact.

Weiser’s grand jury process in the death of Elijah McClain in Aurora brought about an indictment of police officers and paramedics, and regardless of the outcome at trial, this state will be better after those who played a role in McClain’s death get their day in court.

Additionally, Weiser is executing oversight and reform of the Aurora Police Department with a consent decree that is the first of its kind. If Weiser can bring about meaningful changes in the department, it will set a model for reform that will restore trust in police departments across this state.

Finally, Weiser has sued and won settlements or agreements with businesses like CenturyLink, DIRECTV, Comcast, Navient (the nation’s largest student loan servicers) and others for their deceptive, unfair or otherwise questionable practices.

He needs another four years in office to continue this good work.

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They’re joining a handful of campuses where back to school this month means navigating minefields of potentially offensive ideas under free speech initiatives designed to combat “groupthink” and spur dialogue across differences.

Metro’s new approach won’t coddle marginalized groups by designating official separate forums (informal “safe spaces” aren’t prohibited), school officials say. It follows the law on allowing hate speech and doesn’t confine protest to “free speech zones,” which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled illegal. It also encourages respect, treating an attack on one as an attack on all — but without a threat of punishment for saying something hurtful.

“I do not want to be a place where students think we’re going to shut down speakers, events or dialogues because some part of our community disagrees with what people have to say,” Metro President Janine Davidson said Wednesday.

“It is not my job to shut down speech. It is my job to teach you to have respectful dialogue. There should be no expectation on this campus that the president is going to protect you from what you don’t want to hear.”

This approach grew from a campus task force and a free speech course Davidson co-taught with Metro’s general counsel David Fine, Denver’s former city attorney. “We want to create a culture where our community can engage in robust and respectful debate on critical issues. If anywhere, this should happen at universities,” Fine said. “It is imperative to producing students who become contributors to a healthy civic society.”

Metro’s initiative reflects the evolving status of freedom of expression on college campuses as school officials try to stay within the requirements of the U.S. Constitution while also facing student, faculty and marketing department demands for comfort and safety.

Davidson acknowledged brittle conditions primed for a social media-accelerated free speech flare-up any moment. “I’m not under any delusion that I could head off any of that.”

On Colorado campuses, University of Colorado officials in Boulder in recent years faced pressure from students and faculty to fire visiting conservative scholar John Eastman for his political views and role advising then-President Donald trump in the Jan. 6 insurrection. CU’s leaders refused.

More recently, CU-Denver in December 2020 landed on a free speech watchdog group’s target list for a campus email policy that banned inappropriate material that could be offensive. Attorneys with Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a Philadelphia-based non-profit that monitors 500 school policies nationwide, objected to CU-Denver’s restriction as over-reaching, likely to lead to First Amendment free speech violations. (CU-Denver changed the policy, avoiding a potential lawsuit.)  Last March, a Fort Lewis College flier posting policy prohibiting hate speech made the target list.  FIRE attorneys say they field rising numbers of complaints from students, faculty and administrators — more than 1,000 a year now — and consider lawsuits if necessary to protect free expression.

“It’s a really hard job to be a college campus administrator right now. You have got to please everybody. You have got to protect the ‘brand’ of the school.  But the purpose of your school is not to be a brand. It is to be a place where education happens. These things are really in tension these days,” said Alex Morey, FIRE’s director of campus rights advocacy. “A lawsuit is never off the table.”

Beyond Metro, leaders at other schools also are focusing on what the law requires and launching freedom of expression initiatives.

This week at CU-Boulder, Chancellor Phil DiStefano welcomed students back with a speech calling for restoring the university to its rightful place in a democracy as “a house of conflict” where students hear and navigate divergent opinions — “less of an ivory tower” and “more of a public square.” At in Fort Collins, school officials distributed a to understanding the First Amendment and free speech.

“What I’m interested in is what we can do on our college campuses not only for preparing students for the workforce but preparing them to be good citizens for our democracy,” DiStefano said in an interview, lamenting impacts of social media communication.

“Public colleges and private ones, too, haven’t done a good job of fostering free expression in the classroom the way we should, having civil debates about issues, so students can make up their own minds based on what they are hearing pro and con about an idea,” he said.

“We’ve gotten away from free expression, debate, different points of view….. Higher education just has to get back to that.”

This post-pandemic push to ensure free expression aligns with findings of a recent Knight Foundation :

• A majority of Americans  believe schools should allow students to be exposed to all types of speech even if it is offensive or biased
• 84% of college students say free speech rights are critical for democracy
• 65% of students characterize the climate at their school or campus as stifling, leading to self-censorship for fears others might find thoughts offensive
• Less than half of students say they feel comfortable expressing disagreement with teachers and fellow students
• A shrinking share, around 22% of Americans believe colleges should protect students by prohibiting speech they may find offensive or biased

“Open inquiry and respectful discourse is a threatened value” in the United States and college students, especially those who grew up under social media and pandemic-induced isolation, “are arriving on the most diverse campuses ever without the skills for having conversations across differences,” said Jacqueline Pfeffer Merill, director of the campus free expression project at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., a think tank that guides college leaders and members of Congress.

“Faculty and students want to support a culture of open inquiry. But there’s a censorious minority that is willing to engage, using social media, to shut down discourses. They really have an out-sized influence,” Merrill said, lauding new policies at Metro and other schools.

“A fear of the call-out and social media consequences, driven by that censorious minority, has undermined the experiences of the rest of the student body. Half of students say they’ve held back in class. Everybody is profoundly concerned about that,” Merrill said. “Self-censorship is an obstacle to campuses carrying out their teaching mission and their civic mission where students learn to stress-test their ideas and to say something even when they think others will disagree — the core work of higher education.”

College campuses across Colorado and the country still remain largely hostile environments for free expression, according to the latest reports from oversight groups. In Colorado, FIRE attorneys this month labeled the free speech policies at Adams State University and Fort Lewis College as code red for restrictions likely to lead to unconstitutional First Amendment violations.

The policies at most colleges and universities in the state rated yellow, for caution, due to potentially chilling provisions, typically around bias and perceived hurtfulness. Only CU-Boulder, Western Colorado University and Colorado Mesa University received green ratings as acceptable.

A separate FIRE ranking of 200 schools based on surveys of students, faculty and administrators, incorporating those official policies, encompassed several Colorado campuses: CU-Boulder (34th — slightly above average); Colorado School of Mines (75th — average); CSU-Fort Collins (102nd, average); University of Denver (110th — average); and Colorado College (168th — below average). FIRE officials based CC’s ranking on survey results indicating relatively low student comfort expressing ideas and feeble administrative backing for free expression.

Metro now will move from yellow to green, FIRE officials said after reviewing the new policy.

The policy says Metro’s “commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive community demands an equally strong commitment for freedom of expression.” It includes language that FIRE attorneys scrutinized closely — declaring an obligation to ensure basic respect with free expression “in ways that respect the human dignity of others” that is “free from behavior that interferes with their ability to study, grow and attain their full potential.” However, because the policy does not threaten punishment and generally emphasizes more speech on contentious issues, encouraging students to raise their voices rather than resort to censorship, the attorneys classified it overall as superior.

These rankings and policy ratings are done to reward schools that protect and defend freedom of speech and guide students and their parents toward those schools. The spotlighting began amid the long-simmering rancor on changing campuses around free speech and so-called cancel culture, at a time when administrators widely have prioritized protection from statements that students and faculty find hurtful.

A campus freedom of expression scheduled for Thursday afternoon at Metro features Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who has celebrated the friendship between ideologically opposed late U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who attended operas, went souvenir shopping and rode on an together.

The discussion is for “practicing,” Davidson said. “I said early on as president I wasn’t going to prohibit speakers and that, if you don’t agree, then show up and bring you’re A-game intellectually. Don’t try to shut people down.”

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 67% of Americans support a proposal to set a specific number of years that justices serve instead of life terms, including 82% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans. Views are similar about a requirement that justices retire by a specific age.

The poll was conducted just weeks after the high court issued high-profile rulings including stripping away women’s constitutional protections for abortion and expanding gun rights. The poll also shows more Americans disapprove than approve of the court����ap abortion decision, with just over half saying the decision made them “angry” or “sad.”

The court, which is now taking a summer break, will return to hearing cases in October with diminished confidence among Americans. Now 43% say they have hardly any confidence in the court, up from 27% three months ago.

Inez Parker of Currie, North Carolina, said she’s among those who strongly favor limits on justices’ service. “I think some of those people have been up there too long. They don’t have new ideas. When you get a certain age and everything you get set in your ways just like I’m set in my ways,” said the 84-year-old Democrat.

Parker said retired justices can “work in their garden, sit on the porch and fan flies or whatever they want to do.”

The Constitution gives federal judges including Supreme Court justices life tenure, but there have been recent calls for change. A commission tasked by President Joe Biden with examining potential changes to the Supreme Court studied term limits among other issues. The commission finished its work last year and its members were ultimately divided over whether they believed Congress has the power to pass a law creating the equivalent of term limits.

Phil Boller, 90, of LaFollette, Tennessee, said he’s not totally opposed to setting a limit on years of service for justices. The Republican who worked in broadcasting and later owned his own lawn care business said that “basically it����ap worked the way it����ap been going and I see see no reason to change that.”

The oldest member of the current court is Justice Clarence Thomas, 74, followed by Justice Samuel Alito, 72. But recent justices have served into their 80s. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg served until her death in 2020 at age 87. Justice Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018 at 81. And Justice Stephen Breyer just retired at age 83.

Ginsburg served for 27 years, Kennedy 30 years and Breyer nearly 28 years.

Four new members have joined the court in the last five years, bringing down the average age of the court����ap members. Three justices are in their 60s: Chief Justice John Roberts, 67, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, 68, and Elena Kagan, 62. The remaining justices are in their 50s. Neil Gorsuch is 54, Brett Kavanaugh 57, Amy Coney Barrett 50 and Ketanji Brown Jackson 51.

Another proposal Biden’s committee studied was increasing the number of justices on the court, and the poll shows that proposal evenly dividing Americans. Overall, 34% say they’re in favor, while 34% are opposed and 32% say they hold neither opinion. Democrats are more in favor than opposed, 52% to 14%, while Republicans are more opposed than in favor, 61% to 14%.

The poll also found increased dissatisfaction with the court since three months ago, before the court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a right to abortion.

In the April poll, conducted before a draft of the court����ap decision was leaked, 18% said they had a great deal of confidence, 54% said they had only some and 27% said they had hardly any. Now, 17% say they have a great deal of confidence, 39% only some and 43% hardly any.

Patrick Allen, a Democrat from Logan, Utah, is one of those with hardly any confidence in the court. Allen, 33, said he feels as though justices generally vote on issues based on the party of the president that appointed them. “They’re sticking more to their guns along the lines of their party instead of the Constitution,” he said.

The poll shows the drop in confidence is concentrated among Democrats, adding to evidence that the court����ap decision on abortion worsened and polarized already tenuous opinions of the court. A large partisan gap in views of the court that did not exist before the decision emerged; 64% of Democrats say they have hardly any confidence, up from 27% in April. Another 31% have only some and just 4% have a great deal of confidence — down from 17%.

Among Republicans, however, views of the court have improved. Now, 34% say they have a great deal of confidence, up from 21% in the earlier poll. An additional 47% have only some confidence and 18% hardly any.

Overall, more Americans disapprove than approve of the decision to overturn Roe, 53% to 30%; an additional 16% say they hold neither opinion. On that decision, too, there’s a large divide along party lines — 63% of Republicans approve, while 80% of Democrats disapprove.

The poll of 1,085 adults was conducted July 14-17 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

“Mama.” that����ap the first word spoken in Benchmark Theatre’s riling and deftly performed world premiere of “Elephant.” Actually, “spoken” is inaccurate: “cried out” is more like it. “Mama!!!” shouts actor Nnamdi K. Nwankwo, hands raised beseechingly as sirens can be heard and blue-and-red lights flash against the set����ap white walls. And it is not by accident that that same word was one of the last spoken by George Floyd as he lay dying beneath the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020.

For one visceral moment, this echo struck me as exploitative, there to make us sad, angry, retraumatized. But the production — directed by the company’s new artistic director, Neil Truglio – earns its pointed pain.

Actors Abner Genece and Candace Joice joined forces with Truglio to devise a piece that leverages Sir Frederick Treves’ 1923 book “The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences” in order to grapple with a racism that still too often treats Black men as curiosities, freaks or monsters. That treatment extends to others who are racially marginalized, as well as people with disabilities.

Nwankwo’s Merrick had had a run-in with the police when Treves found him. He’s bandaged. The not-so-good doctor offers Merrick refuge in a wing of a hospital. But is he a guest or an inmate? Dan O’Neill does a good job dialing up his portrayal of Treves to full pomposity. It is he who will explain this man to the press, his scientific colleagues, the world — all in the most paternalistic of ways.

Of course, Treves’ sort of research requires patrons to foot the bill. Enter Kendal, played by Courtney Esser with an aplomb both charming and suspect. It����ap great fun when Kendal puts Treves in his place. It’s more enjoyable when she assumes an intimacy with Merrick that the circumstances of his near captivity bely.

There are moments when Kendal — by George! — appears to be grasping the systemic inequity of the situation. But is her willingness to learn and her moments of kindness gestures of empathy or merely preludes to an unwanted kiss? That concern hangs over most of Kendal and Merrick’s interactions.

A few years back, Phamaly Theatre Company mounted a very fine production of the Bernard Pomerance play as a way of investigating disability and the medical establishment. In that production, the female character received kinder and gentler treatment. But this is not that play. This work takes on Race American-Style, in which even seeming allies have a great deal yet to grasp about themselves. So, if Kendal’s final moments onstage sting, so be it.

Nwankwo’s voice is beautifully sonorous. His posture is imposing but also good at embodying the vulnerability of his situation. The actor lets the audience know without winks that he’s aware of Treves’ and Kendal’s outlandish yet normalized demands.

The rending line from “The Elephant Man” (both play and film) even now rings out. It still tromps through a thicket of arrogance and cluelessness. The declaration “I am not an animal!” is scrawled on the hospital room wall.

If Merrick’s conversations with Treves and Kendal seem overly patient but also didactic, if his desire to explain himself and his history appears dumbed down for his listener, well, yeah.

Truglio and company have delivered a show that is visually engaging and at times willfully jarring. In 2019, the director and Benchmark produced a riveting version of George Orwell’s “1984.” In “Elephant,” red is the color of trauma. This production utilizes a few of that show’s tricks: strobing lights, loud noises, abrupt mood shifts, a pre-curtain soundtrack that hints at horror of a Hitchcock — and maybe Jordan Peele — vintage.

“Elephant” is the work of a savvy team, among them production assistant Chantelle Frazier, sound designer Marc Stith and costume designer Daniella Toscano.

After the performance, a friend asked if “Elephant” was sci-fi. After all, Merrick reads as utterly modern while Treves and Kendal seem to represent — in dress, in manner and elocution —  an earlier century. Yet Kendal also appears to have a vast social media following: the Magpies. This is the genius of this collaborative work: We are not all occupying the same space-time moment when it comes to race, power and institutions. It����ap a messed-up continuum.

Opening its new season with “Elephant” is a deliberate nod to the roiling events that took place since Benchmark last staged in-person shows in its intimate theater off Colfax Avenue in Lakewood. “Aftermath” is the 2021/2022 season’s guiding theme.

While a few local theaters have decided to open with shows that seem to suggest a vexing return to business as usual, the most engaged companies are drilling down into the challenges presented by 2020. Those troubles are, after all, hardly behind us. It����ap good to have creatives who believe that the best way forward is likely through.

“Elephant.” Developed and devised by Abner Genece, Candace Joice and Neil Truglio. Directed by Truglio. Featuring Nnamdi K. Nwankwo, Dan O’Neill and Courtney Esser. Through Oct. 30. At the Bench at 40 West, 1560 Teller St., Lakewood. .

“Sisters” act

For the last several weeks, Theatre Or and the Tattered Cover Book Store have been presenting a free webinar series called “Honoring Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” in concert with the theater company’s production of “Sisters in Law,” by Jonathan Shapiro. It����ap been a nimble way to engage theatergoers with the issues the play gently raises and likewise lure legal eagles and court watchers into a night of theater.

Directed by Amy Feinberg, “Sisters in Law” is an adaptation of Linda Hirshman’s dual biography of the first and the second woman to sit the Supreme Court. Keeping the dance between the characters in this two-hander spry, Shapiro has O’Connor repeat — a few too many times for Ginsburg’s liking — “It doesn’t matter that I was the first woman here. Or that you’re the second. What matters is that we’re not the last.”

This one-act unfolds on a handsomely efficient set (by Laura K. Love) that plays with the notion of five. Five chairs, five pillars, five robes – all signify the deciding number that tilts the court one way or the other on its rulings. A number about narrow victories more than consensus.

To the sides of the bench are the offices of each woman. Ginsburg’s on the audience left, O’Connor’s on the right, naturally — though the play occasionally rebuffs those bifurcated distinctions.

Reviews of Hirshman’s 2015 book often praise the author’s recounting of the two careers that lead to O’Connor and Ginsberg landing at the Marble Palace. Shapiro’s play concerns itself with the two of them once they are there. That may be a loss, but it makes for an entertaining tango of two brilliant minds by two strong performers: Sally Knudsen as O’Connor and A. Lee Massaro, who does uncanny work as the “Notorious RBG.”

“Women in power handle power in ways that should make us all want more women in power,” Shapiro told Arizona Jewish Life when his play was getting its premiere in Phoenix in 2019. Consider that a gavel drop.

“Sisters in Law.” Written by Jonathan Shapiro. Based on the book by Linda Hirshman. Directed by Amy Feinberg. Through Oct. 31 at the John Hand Theater, 7653 E. First Place. theatreor@mindspring.com or 303-802-5122. For the final installment of the webinar on Legal Reform on Oct. 20, go to .

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In its landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the court held that the fundamental right of privacy protects a pregnant woman’s choice to terminate a pregnancy during the first three months of pregnancy — before a fetus becomes viable and can survive outside of the womb.

At issue in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is a Mississippi law that bans almost all abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, long before a fetus becomes viable.

In announcing that it would hear the case, the court said it would examine whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are constitutional.

The writing has been on the wall since 2016, when Donald Trump, then a presidential candidate, promised to appoint supreme court justices who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. “That will happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court,” he said. “I will say this: It will go back to the states, and the states will then make a determination.”

Elections have consequences and Trump kept his word.

Trump appointed three United States Supreme Court justices and created a 6-3 conservative super-majority.

Conservative states got the memo, and women’s reproductive rights have been under constant attack. Ten states have trigger laws that would ban abortion the minute Roe v. Wade is overturned.

In early 2019, after Trump had appointed two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, sixteen states, reading the tea leaves and looking for a Supreme Court case to overturn Roe v. Wade,  filed or passed bills that banned abortions after six weeks.  At six weeks, many people even know they’re pregnant. Some of these bills criminalized abortion providers and even stopped women from having an abortion in the event of rape or incest.

But they fell short last year when the Court struck down a restrictive Louisiana abortion law by a 5-to-4 margin, with Chief Justice John Roberts casting the deciding vote.

In a twist of fate, history has since intervened with the assistance of a Machiavellian power play executed by Trump and Senate Republicans.

On September 18, 2020, 46-days before the election, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion for women’s rights, passed away.

Before Ginsburg was even buried, Trump announced the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill her seat and one month later, Republican senators appointed her just one week before America stripped them of their power.

Senate Republicans disingenuously ignored their own 2016 precedent when they refused to allow President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, a confirmation hearing 8 months before the 2016 election, because it was too close to the election.

Barrett was a law professor when she signed onto a 2006 newspaper ad by Right to Life of St. Joseph County, an anti-abortion group, in which she said she opposed “abortion on demand and defended “the right to life from fertilization to the end of natural life.”  And, anyone who wonders how Barrett will ultimately vote, needs only to be reminded of Trump’s litmus test for Supreme Court nominees he announced as a candidate.

Now that they have their fifth vote, the court will dismantle Roe and your zip code will dictate whether women have access to safe and legal abortions.

As Trump predicted, the issue will be fervently pursued by politicians who have been chomping at the bit to ban abortions and create other restrictions. Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights estimates that as many as 24 states could ban abortion completely.

Colorado should consider enacting legislation now that explicitly protects the right to abortion, which would remain in effect if Roe is overturned.  Colorado has a rich history of supporting women, including being the first state to pass women’s right to vote in 1893 and being the first state to loosen restrictions on abortions in 1967.

And, the fight will be taken to Washington D.C. too. Biden’s 36-member commission is contemplating expanding the number of supreme court justices and is expected to issue their report later this year.  A group of lawmakers have already introduced legislation to give Biden the power to stack the court by expanding the court from 9 to 13 justices.

The number of justices has remained at nine since 1869 and it would be a gross abuse of power to politically interfere with an independent branch of government.  Nothing would stop a future Republican President with a majority-controlled Senate from expanding it again so that he or she could stack the deck.

The decision could be a wild card in next year’s midterm elections. Public opinion is on the Democrat����ap side. National polling has long shown strong support for Roe and against overturning it. Planned Parenthood opines that 25 million women of reproductive age reside in states that could ban abortion rights and many of these women are going to be very angry. And, that����ap just the tip of the iceberg as highly energized pro-choice women will turn out in record numbers.

That����ap guaranteed bad news for Colorado Republicans in a blue state. Republicans will need to nominate pro-choice candidates if they have any chance of winning statewide, holding on to Boebert����ap seat or winning in the new 8th Congressional District.

Doug Friednash is a Denver native, a partner with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck and the former chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper.

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Under existing law, there is no reason for the justices to hear this case unless a majority is prepared to dramatically change the law of abortion. In Roe vs. Wade, in 1973, the court held that the government cannot prohibit abortions prior to viability, the time at which the fetus can survive outside the womb. In 1992, in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, the Supreme Court reaffirmed this.
It is generally accepted that viability occurs at about the 22nd or 23rd week of pregnancy. The Mississippi law unquestionably prohibits abortions before viability. That is why the lower federal courts had no hesitation in declaring it unconstitutional. Similar laws prohibiting abortions before viability have been repeatedly invalidated without the Supreme Court granting review. The court’s choice to take the case clearly indicates that there are at least four justices –the number it takes to grant review — who want to reconsider the core holding of Roe vs. Wade and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey: that the government cannot prohibit abortions before viability.

If the court overrules that aspect of these precedents, there is nothing to stop states from enacting laws that prohibit abortions even earlier than 15 weeks. Many states have adopted laws that prohibit abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is at about the sixth week of pregnancy. This effectively ends most abortions, because many women do not know they are pregnant before that time. Some states, such as Alabama, have adopted laws prohibiting almost all abortions.

The reality is that there is a majority on the current Supreme Court that could overturn Roe vs. Wade and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. In 2016, the court declared unconstitutional a Texas law requiring that doctors have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of where they practice to perform abortions. The five justices in the majority were Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Last June, the court struck down a similar Louisiana law, but with four justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh — dissenting and making clear that they would not just uphold that law, but radically change the Constitution’s protection of abortion rights.

In October, Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the bench. As a law professor, Barrett expressed strong opposition to Roe vs. Wade and as a federal court of appeals judge she voted to uphold restrictions on abortion. That means that there are now five justices who seem likely to vote to overrule Roe vs. Wade. Chief Justice Roberts could be a sixth. Since joining the court in 2005, he has voted only once to strike down a restriction on abortion, and in that case he explained explicitly that he made his decision because it followed the precedent of a recent ruling in a similar case.

None of this should surprise anyone. A central aspect of conservative ideology for decades has been that Roe vs. Wade should be overruled. Republican presidents have picked conservative justices who were perceived as likely votes to strike it down. With Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett on the bench are at least five justices ready, willing and likely eager to do so. The Mississippi case that was just granted review provides them the vehicle.

What would overruling Roe vs. Wade mean? In some states, such as California and New York, abortion will remain legal. But it is likely that more than half of U.S. states would prohibit all or most abortions. Many have laws prohibiting abortions already on the books that will go into effect if Roe vs. Wade is invalidated.

The reality is that women with money who are seeking abortions will be able to travel to states where it is legal. But poor women and teenagers will not be able to do so. For them, it will be like it was before 1973: They will have to choose between an unsafe, back-alley abortion or an unwanted pregnancy.

Those who favor abortion rights should not be sanguine about the prospect that abortion foes will be satisfied with simply overruling Roe vs. Wade. I predict that the next time there is a Republican president and a Republican Congress, there will be an effort to adopt a federal law prohibiting all or almost all abortions in the United States. The Supreme Court upheld a federal law, the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, that prohibited a specific abortion procedure. A court that overrules Roe vs. Wade likely would uphold a broader federal law ending abortions.

The court’s new action only grants review in the Mississippi case. There will be briefing and oral argument. But the choice to take this case should make all who support a woman’s right to choose extremely afraid of what will come next.

Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law and a contributing writer to ����ap. He is the author of the forthcoming book, “Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights.”

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The court����ap action is the apparent culmination of a lengthy legal battle that had already reached the high court once before.

Trump’s tax records are not supposed to become public as part of prosecutors’ criminal investigation, but the high court����ap action is a blow to Trump because he has long fought on so many fronts to keep his tax records shielded from view. The ongoing investigation that the records are part of could also become an issue for Trump in his life after the presidency. Trump has called it “a fishing expedition” and “a continuation of the witch hunt — the greatest witch hunt in history.”

The Supreme Court waited months to act in the case. The last of the written briefs in the case was filed Oct. 19. But a court that includes three Trump appointees waited through the election, Trump’s challenge to his defeat and a month after Trump left office before issuing its order.

The court offered no explanation for the delay, and the legal issue before the justices did not involve whether Trump was due any special deference because he was president.

The court����ap order is a win for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who has been seeking Trump’s tax records since 2019 as part of an investigation. Vance, a Democrat, had subpoenaed the records from the Mazars accounting firm that has long done work for Trump and his businesses. Mazars has said it would comply with the subpoena, but Trump, a Republican, sued to block the records’ release.

Vance’s office had said it would be free to enforce the subpoena and obtain the records in the event the Supreme Court declined to step in and halt the records’ turnover, but it was unclear when that might happen. In a three-word statement, Vance on Monday said only: “The work continues.”

Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case the high court ruled in involves a grand jury subpoena for more than eight years of Trump’s personal and corporate tax records. Vance has disclosed little about what prompted him to request the records. In one court filing last year, however, prosecutors said they were justified in demanding the records because of public reports of “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.”

Part of the probe involves payments to two women — porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal — to keep them quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign about alleged extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs.

In July, the justices in a 7-2 ruling rejected Trump’s argument that the president is immune from investigation while he holds office or that a prosecutor must show a greater need than normal to obtain the tax records.

Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump nominated to the high court, joined that decision. It was issued before Trump’s third nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, replaced the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court.

As part of its July decision, the high court returned the Vance case and a similar case involving records sought by Congress to lower courts. And the court prevented the records from being turned over while the cases proceeded.

Since the high court����ap ruling, in the Vance case, Trump’s attorneys made additional arguments that his tax records should not be turned over, but they lost again in federal court in New York and on appeal. It was those rulings that Trump had sought to put on hold.

Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

Many of their names hold a prominent place in the collective consciousness — RBG, Kobe, Maradona, Eddie Van Halen, Little Richard, Sean Connery, Alex Trebek, Christo — but pandemic restrictions often limited the public’s ability to mourn their loss in a year that saw more than a million people die from the coronavirus.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — known as the Notorious RBG to her many admirers — was one of the many noteworthy figures who died in 2020.

In a court known for solemn legal proceedings, Ginsburg became a cultural and social media icon whose fierce defense of women’s rights earned her a devoted following. She died in September after 27 years on the country’s highest court. Making few concessions to age and health problems, she showed a steely resilience and became the leader of liberal justices on the court.

The world also said goodbye to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement who died in July.

Other former political figures who died this year include Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, New York Mayor David Dinkins, Arizona Gov. Jane Hull, Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, U.N. Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and FBI Director William S. Sessions.

Some of the year’s deaths struck down relatively young people, leaving mourners with the heartbreak of a life gone too soon.

Basketball great Kobe Bryant died along with several others in a January helicopter crash at age 41. And in a shock to fans, actor Chadwick Boseman, who inspired audiences with his portrayal of comic book superhero Black Panther, died of cancer in August at age 43.

Others in the world of arts and entertainment who died in 2020 include actors Olivia de Havilland, Kirk Douglas, Irrfan Khan, Max von Sydow, Diana Rigg, Ian Holm, Rishi Kapoor and Franca Valeri; musicians Ellis Marsalis Jr., John Prine, Bonnie Pointer, Kenny Rogers, Juliette Greco and Toots Hibbert; filmmakers Nobuhiko Obayashi, Joel Schumacher and Ivan Passer; authors Mary Higgins Clark and Clive Cussler; TV hosts Regis Philbin and Jim Lehrer; magician Roy Horn; and fashion designer Kenzo Takada.

Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2020 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):

January

David Stern, 77. The basketball-loving lawyer who took the NBA around the world during 30 years as its longest-serving commissioner and oversaw its growth into a global powerhouse. Jan. 1.

Nick Gordon, 30. He was found liable in the death of his ex-partner, Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. Jan. 1. Heroin overdose.

Don Larsen, 90. The journeyman pitcher who reached the heights of baseball glory when he threw a perfect game in 1956 with the New York Yankees for the only no-hitter in World Series history. Jan. 1. Esophageal cancer.

Neil Peart, 67. The renowned drummer and lyricist from the influential Canadian band Rush. Jan. 7.

Elizabeth Wurtzel, 52. Her blunt and painful confessions of her struggles with addiction and depression in the bestselling “Prozac Nation” made her a voice and a target for an anxious generation. Jan. 7. Cancer.

Buck Henry, 89. “The Graduate” co-writer who as screenwriter, character actor, “Saturday Night Live” host and cherished talk-show and party guest became an all-around cultural superstar of the 1960s and 70s. Jan. 8.

Ivan Passer, 86. A leading filmmaker of the Czech New Wave who with Milos Forman fled Soviet-controlled Prague and forged a celebrated career in Hollywood. Jan. 9.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said, 79. He was the Mideast����ap longest-ruling monarch who seized power in Oman in a 1970 palace coup and pulled his Arabian sultanate into modernity while carefully balancing diplomatic ties between adversaries Iran and the U.S. Jan. 11.

Jimmy Heath, 93. A Grammy-nominated jazz saxophonist and composer who performed with such greats as Miles Davis and John Coltrane before forming the popular family group the Heath Brothers in middle age. Jan. 19.

Thomas Railsback, 87. An Illinois Republican congressman who helped draw up articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon in 1974. Jan. 20.

Terry Jones, 77. A founding member of the anarchic Monty Python troupe who was hailed by colleagues as “the complete Renaissance comedian” and “a man of endless enthusiasms.” Jan. 21.

Jim Lehrer, 85. The longtime host of the nightly PBS “NewsHour” whose serious, sober demeanor made him the choice to moderate 11 presidential debates between 1988 and 2012. Jan. 23.

Kobe Bryant, 41. The 18-time NBA All-Star who won five championships and became one of the greatest basketball players of his generation during a 20-year career spent entirely with the Los Angeles Lakers. Jan. 26. Helicopter crash.

John Andretti, 56. Carved out his own niche in one of the world’s most successful racing families and became the first driver to attempt the Memorial Day double. Jan. 30.

Mary Higgins Clark, 92. She was the tireless and long-reigning “Queen of Suspense” whose tales of women beating the odds made her one of the world’s most popular writers. Jan. 31.

Anne Cox Chambers, 100. A newspaper heiress, diplomat and philanthropist who was one of America’s richest women. Jan. 31.

February

Andy Gill, 64. The guitarist who supplied the scratching, seething sound that fueled the highly influential British punk band Gang of Four. Feb. 1.

Bernard Ebbers, 78. The former chief of WorldCom who was convicted in one of the largest corporate accounting scandals in U.S. history. Feb. 2.

George Steiner, 90. He became one of the world’s leading public intellectuals through his uncommon erudition, multilingual perspective and the provocative lessons he drew from his Jewish roots and escape from the Holocaust. Feb. 3.

Daniel arap Moi, 95. A former schoolteacher who became Kenya’s longest-serving president and presided over years of repression and economic turmoil fueled by runaway corruption. Feb. 4.

Kirk Douglas, 103. The intense, muscular actor with the dimpled chin who starred in “Spartacus,” “Lust for Life” and dozens of other films, helped fatally weaken the blacklist against suspected communists and reigned for decades as a Hollywood maverick and patriarch. Feb. 5.

Beverly Pepper, 97. A fixture of the Roman “Dolce Vita” and renowned American sculptor who made Italy her home and backdrop to many of her monumental steel creations. Feb. 5.

Roger Kahn, 92. The writer who wove memoir and baseball and touched millions of readers through his romantic account of the Brooklyn Dodgers in “The Boys of Summer.” Feb. 6.

Orson Bean, 91. The witty actor and comedian who enlivened the game show “To Tell the Truth” and played a crotchety merchant on “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” Feb. 7. Hit by a car.

Robert Conrad, 84. The rugged, contentious actor who starred in the hugely popular 1960s television series “Hawaiian Eye” and “The Wild Wild West.” Feb. 8.

Mirella Freni, 84. An Italian soprano whose uncommon elegance and intensity combined with a sumptuous voice and intelligence to enthrall audiences for a half-century. Feb. 9.

Joseph Shabalala, 78. The founder of the South African multi-Grammy-Award-winning music group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Feb. 11.

Charles “Chuckie” O’Brien, 86. A longtime associate of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa who became a leading suspect in the labor leader’s disappearance and later was portrayed in the Martin Scorsese film, “The Irishman.” Feb. 13.

Zoe Caldwell, 86. A four-time Tony Award winner who brought humanity to larger-than-life characters, whether it be the dotty schoolteacher Miss Jean Brodie, an aging opera star Maria Callas or the betrayed, murderous Medea. Feb. 16.

Charles Portis, 86. The novelist was a favorite among critics and writers for such shaggy dog stories as “Norwood” and “Gringos” and a bounty for Hollywood whose droll, bloody Western “True Grit” was a bestseller twice adapted into Oscar-nominated films. Feb. 17.

Mickey Wright, 85. The golf great with a magnificent swing who won 13 majors among her 82 victories and gave the fledgling LPGA a crucial lift. Feb. 17.

Sy Sperling, 78. The Hair Club for Men founder who was famous for the TV commercials where he proclaimed “I’m not only the Hair Club president but I’m also a client.” Feb. 19.

Barbara “B.” Smith, 70. She was one of the nation’s top Black models who went on to open restaurants, launch a successful home products line and write cookbooks. Feb. 22.

Thich Quang Do, 91. A Buddhist monk who became the public face of religious dissent in Vietnam while the Communist government kept him in prison or under house arrest for more than 20 years. Feb. 22.

Katherine Johnson, 101. A mathematician who calculated rocket trajectories and Earth orbits for NASA’s early space missions and was later portrayed in the 2016 hit film “Hidden Figures,” about pioneering Black female aerospace workers. Feb. 24.

Clive Cussler, 88. The million-selling adventure writer and real-life thrill-seeker who wove personal details and spectacular fantasies into his page-turning novels about underwater explorer Dirk Pitt. Feb. 24.

Hosni Mubarak, 91. The Egyptian leader who was the autocratic face of stability in the Middle East for nearly 30 years before being forced from power in an Arab Spring uprising. Feb. 25.

March

Jack Welch, 84. He transformed General Electric Co. into a highly profitable multinational conglomerate and parlayed his legendary business acumen into a retirement career as a corporate leadership guru. March 1. Renal failure.

Ernesto Cardenal, 95. The renowned poet and Roman Catholic cleric who became a symbol of revolutionary verse in Nicaragua and across Latin America, and whose suspension from the priesthood by St. John Paul II lasted over three decades. March 1.

James Lipton, 93. The longtime host of “Inside the Actors Studio.” March 2. Cancer.

Bobbie Battista, 67. She was among the original anchors for CNN Headline News and hosted CNN’s “TalkBack Live.” March 3. Cancer.

Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, 100. The two-term United Nations secretary-general who brokered a historic cease-fire between Iran and Iraq in 1988 and who in later life came out of retirement to help reestablish democracy in his Peruvian homeland. March 4.

Amory Houghton Jr., 93. He led his family’s glass company in upstate New York and later spent nearly two decades in Congress as a Republican with a reputation for breaking with his party. March 4.

Max von Sydow, 90. The actor known to art house audiences through his work with Swedish director Ingmar Bergman and later to moviegoers everywhere when he played the priest in the horror classic “The Exorcist.” March 8.

Rev. Darius L. Swann, 95. His challenge to the notion of segregated public schools helped spark the use of busing to integrate schools across the country. March 8.

Charles Wuorinen, 81. A winner of the 1970 Pulitzer Prize in Music and composer of the operas “Brokeback Mountain” and “Haroun and the Sea of Stories.” March 11. Injuries suffered in a fall.

Lyle Waggoner, 84. He used his good looks to comic effect on “The Carol Burnett Show,” partnered with a superhero on “Wonder Woman” and was the first centerfold for Playgirl magazine. March 17.

Kenny Rogers, 81. The Grammy-winning balladeer who spanned jazz, folk, country and pop with such hits as “Lucille,” “Lady” and “Islands in the Stream” and embraced his persona as “The Gambler” on records and TV. March 20.

Terrence McNally, 81. He was one of America’s great playwrights whose prolific career included winning Tony Awards for the plays “Love! Valour! Compassion!” and “Master Class” and the musicals “Ragtime” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” March 24. Coronavirus.

Manu Dibango, 86. He fused African rhythms with funk to become one of the most influential musicians in world dance music. March 24. Coronavirus.

Floyd Cardoz, 59. He competed on “Top Chef,” won “Top Chef Masters” and operated successful restaurants in both India and New York. March 25. Coronavirus.

Fred “Curly” Neal, 77. The dribbling wizard who entertained millions with the Harlem Globetrotters for parts of three decades. March 26.

Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, 98. A veteran civil rights leader who helped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and fought against racial discrimination. March 27.

Tom Coburn, 72. A former U.S. senator from Oklahoma who earned a reputation as a conservative political maverick when he railed against federal earmarks and subsidies for the rich. March 28.

Krzysztof Penderecki, 86. An award-winning conductor and one of the world’s most popular contemporary classical music composers whose works have featured in Hollywood films like “The Shining” and “Shutter Island.” March 29.

Joe Diffie, 61. A country singer who had a string of hits in the 1990s with chart-topping ballads and honky-tonk singles like “Home” and “Pickup Man.” March 29. Coronavirus.

Bill Withers, 81. He wrote and sang a string of soulful songs in the 1970s that have stood the test of time, including “Lean on Me,” “Lovely Day” and “Ain’t No Sunshine.” March 30.

April

Ellis Marsalis Jr., 85. The jazz pianist, teacher and patriarch of a New Orleans musical clan. April 1. Coronavirus.

Adam Schlesinger, 52. An Emmy and Grammy-winning musician and songwriter known for his work with his band Fountains of Wayne and on the TV show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” April 1. Coronavirus.

Tom Dempsey, 73. The NFL kicker born without toes on his kicking foot who made a then-record 63-yard field goal. April 4. Coronavirus.

Honor Blackman, 94. The potent British actress who took James Bond’s breath away in “Goldfinger” and who starred as the leather-clad, judo-flipping Cathy Gale in “The Avengers.” April 5.

Earl Graves Sr., 85. He championed Black businesses as the founder of the first African American-owned magazine focusing on black entrepreneurs. April 6.

John Prine, 73. The singer-songwriter who explored the heartbreaks, indignities and absurdities of everyday life in “Angel from Montgomery,” “Sam Stone,” “Hello in There” and scores of other songs. April 7. Coronavirus.

Herbert Stempel, 93. A fall guy and whistleblower of early television whose confession to deliberately losing on a 1950s quiz show helped drive a national scandal and join his name in history to winning contestant Charles Van Doren. April 7.

Linda Tripp, 70. Her secretly taped conversations with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky provided evidence of an affair with President Bill Clinton that led to his impeachment. April 8.

Mort Drucker, 91. The Mad magazine cartoonist who for decades lovingly spoofed politicians, celebrities and popular culture. April 9.

Phyllis Lyon, 95. A gay rights pioneer who, with her longtime partner, was among the first same-sex couples to marry in California when it became legal to do so in 2008. April 9.

Nobuhiko Obayashi, 82. He was one of Japan’s most prolific filmmakers who devoted his works to depicting war’s horrors and singing the eternal power of movies. April 10.

Stirling Moss, 90. A daring, speed-loving Englishman regarded as the greatest Formula One driver never to win the world championship. April 12.

Brian Dennehy, 81. The burly actor who started in films as a macho heavy and later in his career won plaudits for his stage work in plays by William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller. April 15.

Jane Hull, 84. She was Arizona’s first woman elected governor and part of the “Fab Five” celebrated as the nation’s first all-female elected state executive branch leadership group. April 17.

Paul O’Neill, 84. A former Treasury secretary who broke with George W. Bush over tax policy and then produced a book critical of the administration. April 18.

Irrfan Khan, 54. A veteran character actor in Bollywood movies and one of India’s best-known exports to Hollywood. April 29.

Denis Goldberg, 87. A South African anti-apartheid activist. April 29.

Rishi Kapoor, 67. A top Indian actor who was a scion of Bollywood’s most famous Kapoor family. April 30.

May

Bobby Lee Verdugo, 69. One of the leaders of the 1968 East Los Angeles high school walkout to protest discrimination and dropout rates among Mexican American students, which triggered a movement across the American Southwest. May 1.

Shady Habash, 22. An Egyptian filmmaker detained without trial for over two years for making a music video that mocked President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. May 2. Died in prison.

Rosalind Elias, 90. An American mezzo-soprano who created roles in a pair of Samuel Barber world premieres and made her Broadway debut at 81. May 3.

Don Shula, 90. He won the most games of any NFL coach and led the Miami Dolphins to the only perfect season in league history. May 4.

Roy Horn, 75. He was half of Siegfried & Roy, the duo whose extraordinary magic tricks astonished millions until Horn was critically injured in 2003 by one of the act����ap famed white tigers. May 8. Coronavirus.

Little Richard, 87. He was one of the chief architects of rock ‘n’ roll whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing Black R&B to white America. May 9. Bone cancer.

Betty Wright, 66. The Grammy-winning soul singer and songwriter whose influential 1970s hits included “Clean Up Woman” and “Where is the Love.” May 10.

Jerry Stiller, 92. For decades, he teamed with wife Anne Meara in a beloved comedy duo and then reached new heights in his senior years as the high-strung Frank Costanza on the classic sitcom “Seinfeld” and the basement-dwelling father-in-law on “The King of Queens.” May 11.

Astrid Kirchherr, 81. She was the German photographer who shot some of the earliest and most striking images of the Beatles and helped shape their trend-setting visual style. May 12.

Phyllis George, 70. The former Miss America who became a female sportscasting pioneer on CBS’ “The NFL Today” and served as the first lady of Kentucky. May 14.

Fred Willard, 86. The comedic actor whose improv style kept him relevant for more than 50 years in films like “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Best In Show” and “Anchorman.” May 15.

Ken Osmond, 76. On TV’s “Leave It to Beaver,” he played two-faced teenage scoundrel Eddie Haskell, a role so memorable it left him typecast and led to a second career as a police officer. May 18.

Saleh Abdullah Kamel, 79. The billionaire Saudi businessman who founded the banking and real estate conglomerate Dallah Albaraka Group. May 19.

Jerry Sloan, 78. The Hall of Fame coach who was a fixture for decades in Utah and took the Jazz to the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998. May 22.

Eddie Sutton, 84. The Hall of Fame basketball coach who led three teams to the Final Four and was the first coach to take four schools to the NCAA Tournament. May 23.

Stanley Ho, 98. A casino tycoon whose business empire dominated the Portuguese gambling enclave of Macao for decades. May 26.

Larry Kramer, 84. The playwright whose angry voice and pen raised theatergoers’ consciousness about AIDS and roused thousands to militant protests in the early years of the epidemic. May 27. Pneumonia.

Christo, 84. He was known for massive, ephemeral public arts projects that often involved wrapping large structures in fabric. May 31.

June

Wes Unseld, 74. The workmanlike Hall of Fame center who led Washington to its only NBA championship and was chosen one of the 50 greatest players in league history. June 2.

Shigeru Yokota, 87. A Japanese campaigner for the return of his daughter and more than a dozen others who were abducted to North Korea in the 1970s. June 5.

Bonnie Pointer, 69. She convinced three of her church-singing siblings to form the Pointer Sisters, which would become one of the biggest acts of the 1970s and ’80s. June 8. Cardiac arrest.

Pierre Nkurunziza, 56. As president of Burundi, his 15-year-rule was marked by deadly political violence and a historic withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. June 8.

William S. Sessions, 90. A former federal judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan to head the FBI and fired years later by President Bill Clinton. June 12.

Charles Webb, 81. A lifelong nonconformist whose debut novel “The Graduate” was a deadpan satire of his college education and wealthy background adapted into the classic film of the same name. June 16.

Edén Pastora, 83. Better known as “Commander Zero,” he was one of the most mercurial and charismatic figures of Central America’s revolutionary upheavals. June 16.

Jean Kennedy Smith, 92. She was the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy and who as a U.S. ambassador played a key role in the peace process in Northern Ireland. June 17.

Vera Lynn, 103. The endearingly popular “Forces’ Sweetheart” who serenaded British troops during World War II. June 18.

Ian Holm, 88. An acclaimed British actor whose long career included roles in “Chariots of Fire” and “The Lord of the Rings.” June 19.

Joel Schumacher, 80. The eclectic and brazen filmmaker who shepherded the Brat Pack to the big screen in “St. Elmo’s Fire” and steering the Batman franchise into its most baroque territory in “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin.” June 22.

Milton Glaser, 91. The groundbreaking graphic designer who adorned Bob Dylan’s silhouette with psychedelic hair and summed up the feelings for his home state with “I (HEART) NY.” June 26.

Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., 82. He was the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement. June 26.

Rudolfo Anaya, 82. A writer who helped launch the 1970s Chicano Literature Movement with his novel “Bless Me, Ultima,” a book celebrated by Latinos. June 28.

Carl Reiner, 98. The ingenious and versatile writer, actor and director who broke through as a “second banana” to Sid Caesar and rose to comedy’s front ranks as creator of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and straight man to Mel Brooks’ “2000 Year Old Man.” June 29.

Johnny Mandel, 94. The Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer, arranger and musician who worked on albums by Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole and many others and whose songwriting credits included “The Shadow of Your Smile” and the theme from the film and TV show “M(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H.” June 29.

July

Hugh Downs, 99. The genial, versatile broadcaster who became one of television’s most familiar and welcome faces with more than 15,000 hours on news, game and talk shows. July 1.

Nick Cordero, 41. A Tony Award-nominated actor who specialized in playing tough guys on Broadway in such shows as “Waitress,” “A Bronx Tale” and “Bullets Over Broadway.” July 5. Coronavirus.

Ennio Morricone, 91. The Oscar-winning Italian composer who created the coyote-howl theme for the iconic spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and soundtracks for such classic Hollywood gangster movies as “The Untouchables” and “Once Upon A Time In America.” July 6. Complications of surgery after a fall.

Charlie Daniels, 83. Country music firebrand and fiddler who had a hit with “Devil Went Down to Georgia.” July 6. Stroke.

Mary Kay Letourneau, 58. A teacher who married her former sixth-grade student after she was convicted of raping him in a case that drew international headlines. July 6. Cancer.

Naya Rivera, 33. A singer and actor who played a gay cheerleader on the hit TV musical comedy “Glee.” July 8. Drowning.

Kelly Preston, 57. She played dramatic and comic foil to actors ranging from Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire” to Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Twins” and was married to actor John Travolta. July 12. Cancer.

Joanna Cole, 75. The author whose “Magic School Bus” books transported millions of young people on extraordinary and educational adventures. July 12. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

John Lewis, 80. An icon of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress. July 17.

Rev. C.T. Vivian, 95. An early and key adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who organized pivotal civil rights campaigns and spent decades advocating for justice and equality. July 17.

Regis Philbin, 88. The genial host who shared his life with television viewers over morning coffee for decades and helped himself and some fans strike it rich with the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” July 24.

Peter Green, 73. The dexterous blues guitarist who led the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac in a career shortened by psychedelic drugs and mental illness. July 25.

John Saxon, 83. A versatile actor with a lengthy and prolific career who starred with Bruce Lee in “Enter the Dragon” and appeared in several “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies. July 25. Pneumonia.

Olivia de Havilland, 104. The doe-eyed actress beloved to millions as the sainted Melanie Wilkes of “Gone With the Wind,” but also a two-time Oscar winner and an off-screen fighter who challenged and unchained Hollywood’s contract system. July 26.

Connie Culp, 57. She was the recipient of the first partial face transplant in the U.S. July 29.

Lee Teng-hui, 97. A former Taiwanese president who brought direct elections and other democratic changes to the self-governed island despite missile launches and other fierce saber-rattling by China. July 30.

Herman Cain, 74. A former Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of a major pizza chain who went on to become an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump. July 30. Coronavirus.

Alan Parker, 76. A successful and sometimes surprising filmmaker whose diverse output includes “Bugsy Malone,” “Midnight Express” and “Evita.” July 31.

August

Wilford Brimley, 85. He worked his way up from movie stunt rider to an indelible character actor who brought gruff charm, and sometimes menace, to a range of films that included “Cocoon,” “The Natural” and “The Firm.” Aug. 1.

John Hume, 83. The visionary politician who won a Nobel Peace Prize for fashioning the agreement that ended violence in his native Northern Ireland. Aug. 3.

Shirley Ann Grau, 91. A Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer whose stories and novels told of both the dark secrets and the beauty of the Deep South. Aug. 3.

Brent Scowcroft, 95. He played a prominent role in American foreign policy as national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush and was a Republican voice against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Aug. 6.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, 83. A prolific Jewish scholar who spent 45 years compiling a monumental and ground-breaking translation of the Talmud. Aug. 7.

Franca Valeri, 100. An elegant, ironic and versatile actress who pioneered female comic roles in Italy’s post-war years and helped the nation laugh at its foibles. Aug. 9.

Robert Trump, 71. President Donald Trump’s younger brother, he was a businessman known for an even keel that seemed almost incompatible with the family name. Aug. 15.

Slade Gorton, 92. A cerebral politician from Washington state who served as a U.S. Senate Republican leader before he was ousted by the growing Seattle-area liberal electorate in 2000. Aug. 19.

Gail Sheehy, 83. A journalist, commentator and pop sociologist whose best-selling “Passages” helped millions navigate their lives from early adulthood to middle age and beyond. Aug. 24. Complications from pneumonia.

Lute Olson, 85. The Hall of Fame coach who turned Arizona into a college basketball powerhouse. Aug. 27.

Osamu Masuko, 71. A former Mitsubishi Motors chief executive who engineered the Japanese automaker’s alliance with Nissan. Aug. 27. Heart failure.

Chadwick Boseman, 43. He played Black American icons Jackie Robinson and James Brown with searing intensity before inspiring audiences worldwide as the regal Black Panther in Marvel’s blockbuster movie franchise. Aug. 28. Cancer.

John Thompson, 78. The imposing Hall of Famer who turned Georgetown into a “Hoya Paranoia” powerhouse and became the first Black coach to lead a team to the NCAA men’s basketball championship. Aug. 30.

Lady Yvonne Sursock Cochrane, 98. One of Lebanon’s most prominent philanthropists and a pioneer defender of the country’s heritage. Aug. 31. Injuries suffered from a massive explosion in Beirut.

Tom Seaver, 75. The Hall of Fame pitcher who steered a stunning transformation from lovable losers to Miracle Mets in 1969. Aug. 31. Complications of Lewy body dementia and the coronavirus.

September

Kaing Guek Eav, 77. Known as Duc, he was the Khmer Rouge’s chief jailer, who admitted overseeing the torture and killings of as many as 16,000 Cambodians while running the regime’s most notorious prison. Sept. 2.

Diana Rigg, 82. A commanding British actress whose career stretched from iconic 1960s spy series “The Avengers” to fantasy juggernaut “Game of Thrones.” Sept. 10.

Toots Hibbert, 77. One of reggae’s founders and most beloved stars who gave the music its name and later helped make it an international movement through such classics as “Pressure Drop,” “Monkey Man” and “Funky Kingston.” Sept. 11.

Terence Conran, 88. The British designer, retailer and restaurateur who built a furniture empire around the world, founded The Design Museum in London and modernized the everyday lives of British people. Sept. 12.

Florence Howe, 91. An activist, educator and major contributor to American literature and culture who as co-founder of the Feminist Press helped revive such acclaimed and influential works as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and Rebecca Harding Davis’ “Life in the Iron Mills.” Sept. 12.

Winston Groom, 77. The writer whose novel “Forrest Gump” was made into a six-Oscar winning 1994 movie that became a soaring pop culture phenomenon. Sept. 17.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87. The U.S. Supreme Court justice developed a cultlike following over her more than 27 years on the bench, especially among young women who appreciated her lifelong, fierce defense of women’s rights. Sept. 18.

Rev. Robert Graetz, 92. The only white minister to support the Montgomery bus boycott and who became the target of scorn and bombings for doing so. Sept. 20.

Michael Lonsdale, 89. An enigmatic giant of the silver screen and theater in France who worked with some of the world’s top directors in an acting career that spanned 60 years. Sept. 21.

Ang Rita, 72. A veteran Nepalese Sherpa guide who was the first person to climb Mount Everest 10 times. Sept. 21.

Gale Sayers, 77. The dazzling and elusive running back who entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite the briefest of careers and whose fame extended far beyond the field for decades thanks to a friendship with a dying Chicago Bears teammate. Sept. 23.

Juliette Greco, 93. A French singer, actress, cultural icon and muse to existentialist philosophers of the country’s post-War period. Sept. 23.

Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, 91. The ruler of Kuwait who drew on his decades as the oil-rich nation’s top diplomat to push for closer ties to Iraq after the 1990 Gulf War and solutions to other regional crises. Sept. 29.

Helen Reddy, 78. She shot to stardom in the 1970s with her rousing feminist anthem “I Am Woman” and recorded a string of other hits. Sept. 29.

Timothy Ray Brown, 54. He made history as “the Berlin patient,” the first person known to be cured of HIV infection. Sept. 29.

Mac Davis, 78. A country music star who launched his career crafting the Elvis hits “A Little Less Conversation” and “In the Ghetto,” and whose own hits include “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me.” Sept. 29.

Sister Ardeth Platte, 84. A Dominican nun and anti-nuclear activist who spent time in jail for her peaceful protests. Sept. 30.

October

Bob Gibson, 84. A baseball Hall of Famer and the dominating St. Louis Cardinals pitcher who won a record seven consecutive World Series starts and set a modern standard for excellence when he finished the 1968 season with a 1.12 ERA. Oct. 2.

Kenzo Takada, 81. The iconic French-Japanese fashion designer famed for his jungle-infused designs and free-spirited aesthetic that channeled global travel. Oct. 4. Coronavirus.

Eddie Van Halen, 65. The guitar virtuoso whose blinding speed, control and innovation propelled his band Van Halen into one of hard rock’s biggest groups and became elevated to the status of rock god. Oct. 6. Cancer.

Johnny Nash, 80. A singer-songwriter, actor and producer who rose from pop crooner to early reggae star to the creator and performer of the million-selling anthem “I Can See Clearly Now.” Oct. 6.

Mohammad Reza Shajarian, 80. His distinctive voice quavered to traditional Persian music on state radio for years before supporting protesters following Iran’s contested 2009 election. Oct. 8.

Whitey Ford, 91. The street-smart New Yorker who had the best winning percentage of any pitcher in the 20th century and helped the Yankees become baseball’s perennial champions in the 1950s and ’60s. Oct. 8.

Joe Morgan, 77. The Hall of Fame second baseman became the sparkplug of dominant Cincinnati teams in the mid-1970s and was a two-time National League Most Valuable Player. Oct. 11.

Bernard S. Cohen, 86. He won a landmark case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court����ap rejection of laws forbidding interracial marriage and later went on to a successful political career as a state legislator. Oct. 12. Complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Mahmoud Yassin, 79. An Egyptian actor and pillar of the country’s film industry during the second half of the 20th century. Oct. 14.

Christopher Pendergast, 71. A suburban New York teacher who turned a Lou Gehrig’s disease diagnosis into a decadeslong campaign to raise awareness and fund research. Oct. 14.

Rhonda Fleming, 97. The fiery redhead who appeared with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, Ronald Reagan and other film stars of the 1940s and 1950s. Oct. 14.

Sid Hartman, 100. The Minnesota sports columnist and radio personality was an old-school home team booster who once ran the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers and achieved nearly as much celebrity as some of the athletes he covered. Oct. 18.

Spencer Davis, 81. A British guitarist and bandleader whose eponymous rock group had 1960s hits including “Gimme Some Lovin’” and “I’m a Man.” Oct. 19.

James Randi, 92. A magician who later challenged spoon benders, mind readers and faith healers with such voracity that he became regarded as the country’s foremost skeptic. Oct. 20.

Lee Kun-Hee, 78. The Samsung Electronics chairman who transformed the small television maker into a global giant of consumer electronics but whose leadership was also marred by corruption convictions. Oct. 25.

Diane di Prima, 86. A poet, activist and teacher who was one of the last surviving members of the Beats and one of the few women writers in the Beat movement. Oct. 25.

Billy Joe Shaver, 81. An outlaw country singer-songwriter who wrote songs like “Honky Tonk Heroes,” “I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train” and “Old Five and Dimers Like Me.” Oct. 28.

Sean Connery, 90. The charismatic Scottish actor who rose to international superstardom as the suave secret agent James Bond and then abandoned the role to carve out an Oscar-winning career in other rugged roles. Oct. 31.

November

Robert Fisk, 74. A veteran British journalist, he was one of the best-known Middle East correspondents who spent his career reporting from the troubled region and won accolades for challenging mainstream narratives. Nov. 1.

Tom Metzger, 82. The notorious former Ku Klux Klan leader who rose to prominence in the 1980s while promoting white separatism and stoking racial violence. Nov. 4. Parkinson’s disease.

Norm Crosby, 93. The deadpan mangler of the English language who thrived in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s as a television, nightclub and casino comedian. Nov. 7.

Alex Trebek, 80. He presided over the beloved quiz show “Jeopardy!” for more than 30 years with dapper charm and a touch of schoolmaster strictness. Nov. 8.

Saeb Erekat, 65. A veteran peace negotiator and prominent international spokesman for the Palestinians for more than three decades. Nov. 10. Coronavirus.

Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, 84. As Bahrain’s prince, he was one of the world’s longest-serving prime ministers and led his island nation’s government for decades. Nov. 11.

Paul Hornung, 84. The dazzling “Golden Boy” of the Green Bay Packers whose singular ability to generate points as a runner, receiver, quarterback and kicker helped turn the team into an NFL dynasty. Nov. 13.

Soumitra Chatterjee, 85. The legendary Indian actor with more than 200 movies to his name and famed for his work with Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray. Nov. 15. Coronavirus.

Walid al-Moallem, 79. Syria’s longtime foreign minister, he was a career diplomat who became one of the country’s most prominent faces to the outside world during the uprising against President Bashar Assad. Nov. 16.

Jan Morris, 94. The celebrated journalist, historian, world traveler and fiction writer who in middle age became a pioneer of the transgender movement. Nov. 20.

David Dinkins, 93. He broke barriers as New York City’s first African American mayor but was doomed to a single term by a soaring murder rate, stubborn unemployment and his mishandling of a riot in Brooklyn. Nov. 23.

Bruce Carver Boynton, 83. A civil rights pioneer from Alabama who inspired the landmark “Freedom Rides” of 1961. Nov. 23.

Diego Maradona, 60. The Argentine soccer great who scored the “Hand of God” goal in 1986 and led his country to that year’s World Cup title before later struggling with cocaine use and obesity. Nov. 25.

Dave Prowse, 85. The British weightlifter-turned-actor who was the body, though not the voice, of archvillain Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy. Nov. 28.

Eddie Benton-Banai, 89. He helped found the American Indian Movement partly in response to alleged police brutality against Indigenous people. Nov. 30.

December

Thomas M. Reavley, 99. He was the oldest active federal judge who served for 41 years on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Dec. 1.

Valery Giscard d’Estaing, 94. He was the president of France from 1974 to 1981 and became a champion of European integration. Dec. 2.

Rafer Johnson, 86. He won the decathlon at the 1960 Rome Olympics and helped subdue Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin in 1968. Dec. 2.

Alison Lurie, 94. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist whose satirical and cerebral tales of love and academia included the marital saga “The War Between the Tates” and the comedy of Americans abroad “Foreign Affairs.” Dec. 3.

David L. Lander, 73. An actor who played the character of Squiggy on the popular ABC comedy “Laverne & Shirley.” Dec. 4.

Tabaré Vázquez, 80. He was Uruguay’s first socialist president, rising from poverty to win two terms as leader. Dec. 6. Cancer.

Paul Sarbanes, 87. He represented Maryland for 30 years in the Senate as a leader of financial regulatory reform and drafted the first article of impeachment against Republican President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal as a congressman. Dec. 6.

In arguments scheduled for Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear its third major fight over the 10-year-old law, popularly known as “Obamacare.” Republican attorneys general in 18 states and the administration want the whole law to be struck down, which would threaten coverage for more than 23 million people.

It would wipe away protections for people with preexisting medical conditions, subsidized insurance premiums that make coverage affordable for millions of Americans and an expansion of the Medicaid program that is available to low-income people in most states.

California is leading a group of Democratic-controlled states that is urging the court to leave the law in place.

The case comes to a court that now has three justices appointed by President Donald Trump: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court late last month following her hurried nomination and confirmation to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The three Trump appointees have never ruled on the substance of the health care law. Barrett, though, has been critical of the court����ap earlier major health care decisions sustaining the law, both written by Chief Justice John Roberts.

The Supreme Court could have heard the case before the election, but set arguments for a week after. The timing could add a wrinkle to the case since President-elect Joe Biden strongly supports the health care law.

The case turns on a change made by the Republican-controlled Congress in 2017 that reduced the penalty for not having health insurance to zero. Without the penalty, the law’s mandate to have health insurance is unconstitutional, the GOP-led states argue.

If the mandate goes, they say, the rest of the law should go with it because the mandate was central to the law’s passage.

But enrollment in the law’s insurance markets stayed relatively stable at more than 11 million people, even after the effective date of the penalty’s elimination in 2019. According to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, enrollment dropped by about 300,000 people from 2018 to 2019. Kaiser estimates 11.4 million people have coverage this year.

Another 12 million people have coverage through the law’s Medicaid expansion.

The legal argument could well turn on the legal doctrine of severability, the idea that the court can excise a problematic provision from a law and allow the rest of it to remain in force. The justices have done just that in other rulings in recent years.

But in the first big ACA case in 2012, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas voted to strike down the whole law. Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor have voted to uphold it.

A limited ruling would have little real-world consequences. The case could also be rendered irrelevant if the new Congress were to restore a modest penalty for not buying health insurance.

A decision is expected by late spring.