States, organizations, and individuals have filed over 100 lawsuits challenging President Trump’s early actions. While many cases remain unresolved, most court rulings so far have found his administration’s actions to be unlawful. From transgender rights to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the Supreme Court and federal courts have repeatedly intervened to push back against the […]
Michelle West Granted Clemency After 31 Years in Prison
Michelle West is finally free after serving 31 years of an unjust double life sentence plus 50 years for a nonviolent drug conspiracy charge. Her clemency is a hard-won victory, led by The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, and a testament to the power of relentless advocacy and collective action. […]
Pennsylvania Court Case Could Reshape the State’s Medicaid Abortion Coverage
On Wednesday, Feb. 5, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania re-heard a civil case against the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. The case, Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, represents a decades-long fight by reproductive health organizations to remove Medicaid restrictions on abortion funding. Medicaid is a government-funded health insurance program that […]
Georgetown Law Unpacks the Supreme Court’s 2024 Term: Civil Rights, Reproductive Health, and the Fight for Democracy
Photo by Ian Hutchinson Georgetown Law’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law hosted an event, sponsored by Ms and Feminist Majority Foundation, on July 1st reviewing the Supreme Court’s 2024 term and discussing the current crisis of health and democracy due to the Dobbs decision. In honor of the 70th anniversary of Brown v. […]
The Impact of the Supreme Court’s Presidential Immunity Ruling
Photo by Tim Mossholder On July 1st, the Supreme Court released its last round of decisions before their summer recess. One of these decisions, Trump vs. the United States (2024), changed the future of the executive office, and possibly our democracy. After the January 6th insurrection in 2021, Special Council Jack Smith was assigned to investigate […]
Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Case On Transgender Affirming Care For Minors
Photo by Nikolas Gannon On Monday, June 24th, the Supreme Court inserted itself into the fight over transgender rights. The court agreed to hear a Biden administration appeal to a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care to transgender minors. The state law, enacted last year, restricts puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery for minors and imposes […]
Supreme Court Upholds Federal Law Protecting Survivors of Domestic Violence
Photo by Tomasz Zielonka On June 21, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of a federal law prohibiting those with a domestic violence restraining order against them from possessing a firearm. The federal law in question under United States v. Rahimi (2024) was the 1996 Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, often referred to as “the […]
Supreme Court Unanimously Upholds Full Access To Mifepristone
Photo by Fine Photographics On Thursday, June 13th, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone. The FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case was brought by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine against the Food and Drug Administration in an attempt to restrict mifepristone access. Mifepristone was approved by the FDA in […]
Supreme Court appears poised to support Oregon city’s measures against public sleeping
Photo by Mihály Köles On Monday, April 22, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, marking one of the most significant cases on the issue of homelessness in years. This case comes amidst a record number of 650,000 people in 2023 reported as experiencing homelessness in the United […]
Supreme Court set to rule on Biden Administration’s ghost gun regulations
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on whether the regulations placed on ghost guns by the Biden Administration are lawful. Ghost guns are privately assembled through “buy build shoot” kits or are 3D-printed. They also lack a serial number, making them untraceable, and do not require buyers to have background checks conducted. […]
Supreme Court begins oral arguments on emergency abortion case
Physicians for Human Rights supporting EMTALA in front of the Supreme Court. In yet another recent Supreme Court case concerning access to reproductive healthcare, the state of Idaho has brought a challenge to EMTALA (the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) in Moyle v. United States. EMTALA, initially passed by Congress in 1986, ensures […]
Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Mifepristone Case
FMF attends rally in front of Supreme Court in support of mifepristone The Supreme Court began oral arguments on March 26th for the case FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, diving into the contentious issue of access to the abortion pill, mifepristone, which is used in more than 60% of all abortions across the nation. […]
Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos qualify as “children”
The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that embryos outside of the womb qualify as children in a ruling that further thwarts reproductive freedom in the state. In the 131 page opinion, Alabama judges quoted the Bible before ultimately coming to a 7-2 decision that threatens access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. The case comes […]
Supreme Court set to rule on Mifepristone access
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case regarding the restriction on the use of mifepristone in the United States. Mifepristone — when taken in conjunction with misoprostol — is a pill that can end a pregnancy that is less than 10 weeks along. In August 2023, Texas’ ultra-conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals […]
Texas woman sues the state for the right to an abortion
Source: Guttmacher Institute The Center for Reproductive Rights has been representing Kate Cox in an emergency lawsuit asking for a temporary restraining order on Texas abortion bans in order to terminate her pregnancy. The morning of December 7th, a judge granted their request to allow Cox access to the reproductive healthcare that she needs, without […]
ACLU Brings Legal Challenge to Tennessee’s Discriminatory Aggravated Prostitution Law
Image by succo from Pixabay The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed against the state of Tennessee in Memphis last week on behalf of four individuals who have been convicted of Aggravated Prostitution and required to register as “violent sex offenders” for their entire lives. The ACLU also filed on behalf of OUTMemphis, the state’s […]
Supreme Court lets businesses discriminate against a protected class for the first time in history
Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash In 2017, the Supreme Court heard a case about a bakery owner who refused to create a cake for a gay wedding. The Court ruled that the cake represented free expression, so the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) could not force the owner to sell a cake for the couple’s […]
Democrats reintroduce legislation to expand the Supreme Court, set term limits
AP/J. Scott Applewhite The Supreme Court ended its term with decisions that challenged precedent and rolled back rights for the environment, Black and Latino college applicants, same-sex couples, and student loan borrowers. With a 6-3 conservative majority, the Court is making its highest rate of conservative decisions since 1931.Two of its Justices have violated ethics […]
Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action
AP Photo/Gerry Broome In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against race-conscious admissions programs. In both cases — Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina — college admissions programs considered race as one of many factors in determining an application’s value. The Court ruled that […]
Supreme Court explicitly rejects independent state legislature theory
Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash Voting rights activists around the country are celebrating as the Supreme Court released their decision for the Moore v. Harper case, ruling that state legislatures do not have the authority to set election rules outside the constraints of state constitutions. This is the second time this month we have seen a pro-democracy victory, where the Supreme […]
