SCOTUS hands down two critical reproductive rights rulings, allows Texas and Alabama laws to stand
Plus, Montana Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy claims to be building affordable housing, but the listings tell a different story.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a lower court ruling which will allow the state of Texas to continue to prohibit emergency abortions. As such, the Supreme Court will not engage with efforts by the Biden administration to overturn the restriction. No reasoning or dissenting opinions were offered by any of the nine justices.
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the Biden administration has argued that such bans would violate the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which the Supreme Court had cited this past summer as a reason to reject a similar ban in Idaho.
Under the law, hospitals that do not comply with EMTALA standards are at risk of losing their Medicare funding.
“This months-long catastrophe was completely unnecessary,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in her opinion on the Idaho case. “More to the point, it directly violated federal law, which in our system of government is supreme.”
“While this court dawdles and the country waits, pregnant people experiencing emergency medical conditions remain in a precarious position, as their doctors are kept in the dark about what the law requires,” she continued.
In January, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists and Christian Medical & Dental Associations successfully sued the Biden administration over the use of EMTALA to enforce emergency abortions. Paxton distinguished between Idaho and Texas’ abortion laws because the latter has an exception on the basis of “substantial impairment of a major bodily function.”
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with Paxton, stating that "EMTALA does not mandate any specific type of medical treatment, let alone abortion."
However, per the Texas Tribune, doctors have called the law “dangerously vague” because medical boards in the state have not clarified what conditions constitute an emergency.” They also noted a “spike in complaints that pregnant women in medical distress have been turned away from emergency rooms in Texas.”
The decision by the Supreme Court comes on the same day as another key case concerning reproductive rights: It was announced they would not review a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court which classified frozen embryos as people and threatened access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The Center for Reproductive Medicine, a fertility clinic in Mobile, Ala., had sought an appeal from the Court after a couple sued the center on a wrongful death charge. A patient at the hospital where the Center is based had “entered the cryogenic nursery and removed several embryos,” according to court documents.
“The subzero temperatures at which the embryos had been stored freeze-burned the patient’s hand, causing the patient to drop the embryos on the floor, killing them.” One of those embryos belonged to the couple in question.
The Alabama Supreme Court had ruled that under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, embryos fell under the definition outlined in the law. Since then, fertility clinics across the state have ceased using IVF.
Tim Sheehy brags about building affordable housing despite rents significantly above market median
By Richard Eberwein
Montana Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, bragged about providing affordable housing in the state, even though the luxury apartments he helped build charge as much as $638 above the median rent in town.
While the candidates were participating in a debate on June 9, the Republican looking to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D) responded to a question about Montanans’ concerns with the economy by claiming to have built affordable housing for his employees.
“Well, I agree with Sen. Tester on that, we need to focus on affordable housing,” Sheehy said. “And that’s exactly what I’ve done with my companies. We’ve actually built an affordable housing apartment building nearby because as housing prices soared in our state economy, our folks couldn’t afford to live here.”
According to his candidate filings, Sheehy holds between $400,000-$1 million in apartment buildings in Belgrade, Mont. which are owned by Yellowstone WFH Holdings. Yellowstone Holdings owns a property full of newly developed high-rise apartments called Yellowstone Landing. The apartment complex is located adjacent to the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, where Sheehy’s former company Bridger Aerospace is located.
According to LinkedIn posts from 2022, Sheehy and his company were involved in the effort to develop the apartments alongside the Colorado-based real estate developer ERES Capital LLC.
Despite Sheehy’s claims that these apartments were “affordable,” Yellowstone Landing’s residential rent prices are roughly $400 above the median rent for apartments in Belgrade and as much as nearly double the fair market rent price calculated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sheehy’s campaign did not respond to an email request to comment on his affordable housing claim.
According to a report from the National Association of Realtors, Montana is the least affordable state in the country, with home prices increasing by as much as 89.6% from 2018-23. Reports suggest the sharp increase in prices is partially a result of a surge of interest in living in rural communities sparked by the pandemic. Real estate developers followed suit, resulting in less available housing, increased prices and an “era of gentrification” for the local community.
Sheehy is looking to flip Montana Senate seat next month, and he is conducting a “political outsider” campaign against Tester. Sheehy’s past actions and words have resurfaced since launching his campaign, prompting reports about abortion opposition, killing drone privacy bills and spreading antisemitic rhetoric.