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Civil Law

Abortion Rights Ballot Measures Pass in Seven States

Quick Hits

Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New York, and Nevada supported ballot measures to add the right to abortion into the state constitution.
Ballot measures to expand abortion access failed in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
Legal challenges are expected regarding the ballot measure process, parental consent requirements, and other abortion limits in certain states.

On November 5, 2024, voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New York, and Nevada approved ballot measures to amend the state … Read the rest

Supreme Court

A fast-moving argument over medication abortion

It’s a crisp morning here as Washington’s famous cherry blossoms are holding on to their leaves and color a good eight days after they reached an unexpectedly early peak bloom. The court has some of the trees right on its grounds, and they will be a backdrop to much expressive activity over today’s lone case — Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, about the agency’s 2016 and 2021 actions easing access to the abortion drug … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Justices take up abortion case pitting state against federal law

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon granted a request from Idaho and the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to temporarily put on hold a ruling by a federal district court that would require emergency rooms in the state to provide abortions to pregnant women in an emergency. The justices agreed to weigh in on the question at the center of the dispute: whether the federal law on which the lower court relied trumps an Idaho law that criminalizes most abortions in … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Federal government and drug manufacturer ask court to review ruling restricting access to abortion medication

The Biden administration and a drug manufacturer on Friday night asked the Supreme Court to review a decision by a federal appeals court that would significantly restrict access to a drug used in medication abortions, which account for over half of all abortions performed in the United States. The filings created the prospect that the justices will weigh in on the issue of abortion for the first time since their decision last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court allows abortion pill to remain widely available while appeals proceed

The Supreme Court on Friday night granted a request from the Biden administration and a drug manufacturer to put on hold a ruling by a federal judge in Texas that suspended the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, part of a two-drug protocol used to end pregnancies in their early stages. The battle over medication abortions, which account for over half of all abortions performed in the United States each year, now returns to the U.S. Court of … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Supreme Court further delays ruling on access to abortion pill

In a brief order, the Supreme Court continued to place on hold a trial judge’s ruling blocking the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions. Wednesday’s order extends the court’s “administrative stay” – i.e., a stay designed to give the justices time to consider the request – of the trial judge’s ruling until Friday at midnight. The justices are extremely likely to issue a further ruling before the administrative stay expires.

A court of … Read the rest

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What to do with the abortion case on the Supreme Court’s docket?

The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.

The Supreme Court will observe St. Patrick’s Day this year by meeting in conference to discuss which of the 184 petitions and applications for resolution that day should be granted favorable consideration. Only one of those cases is newly relisted: Chapman v. Doe. Jane Doe, then an unemancipated 17-year-old, went to Missouri … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Majority turns down request to send Texas abortion litigation back to federal district court

The Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon rejected abortion providers’ request to order a federal appeals court to send their challenge to a Texas law banning almost all abortions in the state promptly back to the friendlier confines of a federal district court in that state. The providers argued that failing to do so would “derail indefinitely the timely resolution of the merits of the case” and “compound the ongoing harm to pregnant Texans under” the law, which has been … Read the rest