Supreme Court seems set to allow Idaho emergency abortions for now
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appears poised to allow emergency abortions in Idaho when a pregnant patient’s health is at serious risk, according to a copy of the opinion briefly posted on the court’s website Wednesday and obtained by Bloomberg News.
The document suggests the court will find that it should not have gotten involved in the case over Idaho’s strict abortion ban so quickly. By a 6-3 vote it would reinstate a lower court order that had allowed hospitals in the state to perform emergency abortions to protect a pregnant patient’s health.
Such an outcome would leave the issues at the heart of the case unresolved. It would also mean key questions remain unanswered, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a concurrence.
“Today’s decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho. It is delay,” she wrote.
The Supreme Court acknowledged that its publications unit inadvertently posted a document Wednesday. An opinion in the Idaho case would be issued “in due course,” court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said in a statement.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch are listed as dissenting from the decision.
The finding may not be the court’s final ruling because the justices’ decision has not been officially released. The decision would mean the case would continue at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court, and could end up back before the justices.
Supreme Court rules for Biden administration in social media dispute
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with the Biden administration in a dispute with Republican-led states over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts on topics including COVID-19 and election security.
By a 6-3 vote, the justices threw out lower-court rulings that favored Louisiana, Missouri and other parties in their claims that federal officials leaned on the social media platforms to unconstitutionally squelch conservative points of view.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the court that the states and other parties did not have the legal right, or standing, to sue. Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas dissented.
The decision should not affect typical social media users or their posts.
The states had argued that White House communications staffers, the surgeon general, the FBI and the U.S. cybersecurity agency are among those who applied “unrelenting pressure” to coerce changes in online content on social media platforms.
The court’s ruling comes as many social media companies have removed guardrails against hate and disinformation.
The social media platform X, under the leadership of owner Elon Musk, has restored the accounts of conspiracy theorists and extremists who were previously banned. It also has gutted teams that once fought misinformation on the platform, leaving the community of users to moderate itself.