Courts & Law

A counter-movement to anti-choice extremism

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A new study shows more abortion restrictions went into effect in the last three years than in the previous decade. States pass record number of abortion laws:

State legislatures have passed more laws restricting access to abortions in the last three years than they did in the decade beforehand, according to a new study.

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The Washington Post's Sarah Kliff explains:

What made 2010 such a boom year for abortion restrictions? It’s hard to pinpoint a particular reason, but a few factors do stand out. First, Republicans took control of lots of state legislatures in the 2010 midterm elections, allowing them to pass more restrictions than was politically feasible in the past. The Affordable Care Act also ignited a fight over abortion policy, particularly whether federal funds would help pay for abortions (when Americans used their tax subsidies to purchase health insurance coverage). That fight spilled over to state legislatures – the ones that Republicans had recently come to control – and many passed laws restricting insurance coverage of abortion.

Lastly, the focus on late-term abortion, with the 20-week abortion bans, likely played a role, too. As the Guttmacher Institute reports, those bans proliferated quickly, after Nebraska passed the first such law back in 2010. While the majority of Americans do support legal abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy, support for abortion rights falls significantly when you get into second and third trimester terminations. That drop-off in public support could have laid the groundwork for the success of the late-term restrictions.

Ninth Circuit Marriage Equality case again delayed for briefing

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Equality on Trial reports that Sevcik v. Sandoval (No.12-17668), the marriage equality case from Nevada before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is again delayed for briefing: Briefing in the challenge to Nevada’s same-sex marriage ban has been delayed further. The new request for delay came from the defendants, who haven’t yet … Read more

(Update) ‘Culture Warrior Day’ at the U.S. Supreme Court

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On New Year's Eve, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor gave respondents until Friday to file a response to petitions filed by the state of Utah in the marriage equality case, and from the Little Sisters of the Poor in the contraceptive coverage mandate of "ObamaCare" case from Colorado. Those responses have now been filed.

Early reports from the Washington Post: Obama administration asks Justices to lift delay on birth-control rule:

The Obama administration told the Supreme Court on Friday that a group of Colorado nuns does not need a special injunction against the new health-care’s law provision providing contraceptive coverage for employees because the group can easily exempt itself from the requirement.

The government asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor to lift the temporary injunction she issued New Year’s Eve for the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Colorado nonprofit organization that provides services to the elderly. The Affordable Care Act, new provisions of which went into effect Jan. 1, requires employers who provide insurance coverage to include contraceptive services.

But nonprofit organizations such as the nuns’ may opt out of the requirement simply by certifying that they have religious objections, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. wrote in a response to Sotomayor filed Friday morning.

The “employer-applicants here are eligible for religious accommodations set out in the regulations that exempt them from any requirement ‘to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for contraceptive coverage,’ ” Verrilli wrote.

“They need only self-certify that they are non-profit organizations that hold themselves out as religious and have religious objections to providing coverage for contraceptive services.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s New Year’s Eve

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

For those of you who still watch the ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve, you saw U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor start the ball drop.

Sotomayor
Pearl Gabel/New York Daily News

But before Justice Sotomayor joined revelers at Times Square, she had a busy evening issuing orders in appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Several groups of Roman Catholic universities, schools, and charity organizations on Tuesday afternoon began filing a series of requests for the Supreme Court to delay enforcement of the contraceptive mandate in the new federal health care law. Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports, New challenges to birth-control mandate (UPDATED):

UPDATE 11:21 p.m.  In a case from the Tenth Circuit Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor temporarily blocked enforcement of the mandate against the institutions in that case, while she awaits a response from the federal government, due by 10 a.m. on Friday.  Four separate applications were filed from different federal Circuits, but not all sought immediate relief.

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The Court has already agreed to hear constitutional challenges to the Affordable Care Act’s mandate on birth control and other pregnancy-related services, in the cases of Sebelius v.  Hobby Lobby Stores (docket 13-354) and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius (13-356). The Court has not yet scheduled those cases for oral argument.  Briefing in those two is now in progress.

‘ObamaCare’ arrives this New Year’s Day

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Unless there was a late order entered by Judge Kathleen Cooper in Biggs, et al. vs. Brewer, et al. (CV2013-011699) that did not get recorded on the docket, Arizona's expanded Medicaid (AHCCCS) program under "ObamaCare" is effective today.

If you have been approved for Medicaid (AHCCCS) health care coverage, you are among the millions of Americans who now have health care coverage that you did not have before thanks to "ObamaCare." With new year, Medicaid takes on broader role:

Medicaid embarks on a massive transformation Wednesday — from a safety-net program for the most vulnerable to a broad-based one that finds itself at the front lines of the continuing political and ideological battle over the Affordable Care Act.

Already the nation’s largest health-care program, Medicaid is being expanded and reshaped by the law to cover a wider array of people.

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On Wednesday, people who have signed up for coverage under the new law will become eligible to receive it, in what supporters have hailed as a historic moment for health care in the United States.

So far, more than 2 million Americans, many previously uninsured, have enrolled in private health plans, thanks in large part to new federal subsidies for low- and middle-income people to buy coverage.

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A far greater number — about 3.9 million — took steps in October and November to sign up for Medicaid, according to federal figures. That includes people who became eligible for the state-federal program under the expansion as well as those who could have enrolled previously, but for one reason or another did not sign up until now.