close. justices breyer, ruth bader ginsburg, sotomayor and justice kennedy wrote in favor of texas clinics and chief justice roberts, and justices thomas and alito dissented. joining me is nbc justice correspondent pete williams. this is unusual. it shows maybe an eight member court might be an effective instrument of justice here. >> couple things to think about. justice scalia had been on this court it would have been 5-4, probably the same outcome. secondly, of all those justices, the only one who spoke up and said there was nothing wrong with the law was justice thomas. but it is a pretty strong smack-down of the texas law. basically the court says it raises obstacles to women's access to abortion without any medical benefit, so therefore it's an undue burden. this decision doesn't by itself undercut the other laws but can be used in other states to challenge them. >> does this reaffirm casey and webster and the cases subsequent to roe v wade, bottom line, a