The Supreme Court just gave us its first view of how it will handle abortion in the Kavanaugh era

The Supreme Court handed down a surprising order on Monday, announcing it will not hear a pair of cases asking, among other things, how much power conservative states have to defund Planned Parenthood. The order is surprising because, as Justice Clarence Thomas notes in a dissent joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, the two cases meet the ordinary criteria the Supreme Court uses to determine which cases it should hear.

“One of this Court’s primary functions is to ...