Supreme Court denies lawsuit vs. Texas pro-life law

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear arguments in a Biden administration lawsuit that challenged a Texas law to protect unborn babies. The single-line denial means a Texas law protecting some unborn babies remains in place. The decision comes on the courts’ first day back in session in months.

So what’s this abortion case about? The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2022 ordered doctors in hospitals that accept federal funding to abort unborn babies in situations defined as medical emergencies by the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. Texas sued, in part arguing the case was not about reconciling EMTALA and states’ laws, but rather about aggressive overreach by the Department of Health. The Texas pro-life law contains an exception for the health of the mother. Texas repeatedly won in the lower courts. The Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene and decide whether state law or federal law ought to triumph.

In a similar case over an Idaho state law, the Supreme Court concluded in June that the executive branch sought to intervene too soon in another case addressing a disconnect between state law and EMTALA.

What other cases will the court address this year? The Supreme Court is set to hear challenges to laws regulating so-called ghost guns—homemade firearms assembled from kits and packages of parts that the government can’t legally regulate. It’s also scheduled to hear a challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against laws in Tennessee and Kentucky meantto protect minors from transgender interventions.

Dig deeper: Listen to The World and Everything in It’s preview of the Supreme Court’s new term.