EXTREME COURT
The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in a landmark case that could weaken the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
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At the center of the most consequential Supreme Court case since the disastrous Dobbs decision is Idaho’s ultra-restrictive abortion ban, which the Biden Administration claims violates federal law. Idaho’s abortion ban does not provide exceptions for serious pregnancy-related medical complications, unless the patient is so compromised that they face imminent death. Therefore, the government argues that the ban infringes on a patient’s right to a screening examination and stabilizing emergency medical care under EMTLA.
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The Court’s three liberal justices closely scrutinized the lawyer representing Idaho, Joshua Turner. When Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked if the state’s ban would prevent abortion in a situation in which a woman would otherwise lose an organ or have serious medical complications, Turner said, “Yes, Idaho law does say that abortions in that case aren’t allowed.” The Court’s most conservative Justice (or at least in a tie with Justice Clarence Thomas) Samuel Alito was not persuaded by the arguments of the federal government or his liberal female colleagues, and said they were just giving hypothetical examples. There go those hysterical women again, amiright fellas! Justice Elena Kagan shot back that Idaho’s largest hospital alone needed to to transfer six women out of state for emergency abortions since January.
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Idaho’s lawyer and Alito both made “fetal personhood” arguments, with Turner saying “there are two patients to consider,” when pregnant women seek emergency care. The federal government’s lawyer, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, pointed out that the mentions of “unborn child” in EMTLA refer only to when a woman goes to an emergency room and her pregnancy is in danger but her own health is not at risk—not for the fetal life to take precedence over the mother’s. She also pointed out that life-threatening pregnancy emergencies that require an abortion almost always involve a non-viable fetus, or no possibility for a live birth. In such cases, she said, “what Idaho is doing is waiting for women to wait and deteriorate and suffer the lifelong health consequences with no possible upside for the fetus. It stacks tragedy upon tragedy.”
The decision is expected in late June.
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UNDER THE RADAR
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President Biden signed a $95.3 billion foreign aid package that had long been stalled in Congress on Wednesday. and “continues America’s leadership in the world.” The president said his commitment to Israel is “ironclad” amid significant and ever-growing backlash from within the Democratic party for his willingness to continue providing weapons to Israel. Despite more Congressional Democrats speaking out on the issue, all but two Democratic senators—Sens. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR)—voted for the aid package, . The package allocates $1 billion to humanitarian relief in Gaza. The 15 Republican senators who opposed the package were mostly of the MAGA variety, who fiercely oppose additional funding to Ukraine. Republicans were finally persuaded to vote for the package because it includes a provision that requires social media giant TikTok’s Chinese parent company to divest from the app or face a national ban. The law gives the Chinese parent company nine months to orchestrate the sale, which TikTok CEO Shou Chew vowed to fight on First Amendment grounds. TikTok is particularly popular among young Americans, a demographic with whom President Biden is already struggling mightily. |
NEWS NEWS NEWS
Democrats in the Arizona state legislature advanced their third attempt to repeal the draconian Civil War-era abortion ban that the state’s Supreme Court reinstated. This time, three Republican lawmakers in the lower chamber broke ranks and voted with Dems, sending the bill to the state Senate.
Five military horses—including one that appeared to be covered in blood(!)—got loose in central London on Wednesday near Buckingham Palace. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said the horses escaped “during routine exercise” in the morning. We’ll try to ignore the fact that a blood-soaked horse running wild through the streets feels like a doomsday scene from the Book of Revelation after the gates of hell have opened.
Rep. Donald Payne, Jr., (D-NJ) has died at the age of 65 after what his office called a “cardiac episode.”
About 1 in 4 U.S. adults over 50 who have not yet retired say they expect to never retire, and the same share of that demographic has no retirement savings at all, according to a new AARP survey.
BE SMARTER
GOP Speaker Mike Johnson emerged from the tree where he makes cookies on Wednesday to do a publicity stunt visit at Columbia University as the student protests there continue. Johnson was repeatedly and loudly booed by students and faculty during his press conference, in which he called for the university’s President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik to resign. For his part, President Biden is pursuing a cautious, middle-of-the road approach in an effort to navigate the delicate response to the antiwar protests popping up at college campuses all over the country. (If you missed Monday’s newsletter, we did a full rundown of the current landscape).
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE EMAIL
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced on Wednesday new rules that will require airlines to give passengers automatic cash refunds when they cancel or significantly delay flights, or if they lose a passenger’s bags. If President Biden spent his entire four years waging war on junk fees he would be in the running for Mount Rushmore.
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) won her primary on Tuesday night by a staggering 20 points, fending off a centrist challenger who focused on her pro-ceasefire stance in the Israel-Gaza war.
