{"id":33905,"date":"2025-04-11T22:38:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T22:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/?p=33905"},"modified":"2025-04-11T22:38:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T22:38:05","slug":"supreme-court-can-further-rule-of-law-with-latest-abortion-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/supreme-court-can-further-rule-of-law-with-latest-abortion-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Can Further Rule of Law With Latest Abortion Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: John Bursch, originally published April 7, 2025, Bloomberg Law.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alliance Defending Freedom\u2019s John Bursch says the Supreme Court can solidify its reputation as an institution that enforces the law rather than creating it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Justice John Roberts famously told Congress during his 2005 confirmation hearing, \u201cJudges are like umpires. Umpires don\u2019t make the rules, they apply them.\u201d He promised that if he was confirmed, he would \u201cremember that it\u2019s my job to call balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, he was expressing a minority view of the courts\u2019 proper role\u2014including among justices. However, in the 20 years since, that view has become dominant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his first term, President Donald Trump nominated three justices who are part of a movement, spearheaded by the Federalist Society, that has tried to move into the mainstream Roberts\u2019 aspiration of judges applying rules rather than making them. Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett\u2019s appointments brought the total number of justices on the Supreme Court with such ties to six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics have argued these judges have had a heavier hand in making laws than they profess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 6\u20133 majority has produced rulings in several \u201cculture war\u201d cases that have captured attention and drawn criticism. Cases such as\u00a0National Federation of Independent Business v. Occupational Safety and Health Administration<\/em><\/a>, which held that a federal agency lacked the power to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and\u00a0Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em><\/a>, which held that the Constitution is silent regarding abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those cases show Roberts is trying to live up to his promise about applying rules and laws, not making them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the vaccine-mandate case, the court concluded Congress hadn\u2019t given OSHA the power to require the vaccination of 84 million Americans. That choice was for Congress alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\u00a0Dobbs<\/em>, the court overruled\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Planned Parenthood v. Casey<\/em><\/a>, holding that the court had \u201cusurped the power to address a question of profound moral and social importance that the Constitution unequivocally leaves for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the court is, once again, preparing to answer a question about abortion which could show whether the court is committed to applying rules rather than crafting new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\u00a0Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic<\/em><\/a>, a case argued before the Supreme Court on April 2, my colleagues and I at Alliance Defending Freedom represent the director of South Carolina\u2019s Department of Health and Human Services. We\u2019re defending the state\u2019s decision to disqualify abortion facilities such as Planned Parenthood from receiving state taxpayer dollars through Medicaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the surface, the case involves one state\u2019s decision to redirect limited taxpayer dollars away from organizations such as Planned Parenthood, which, according to a recent\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>, has \u201crepeatedly prioritized the fight for abortion rights over clinics,\u201d harming women. A ruling for South Carolina will allow the state to direct Medicaid monies in a way that it determines best benefits low-income women and families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Carolina prioritizes\u00a0life-affirming<\/a>, comprehensive health care for women and their families. Because, in the state\u2019s determination, Planned Parenthood provides neither of those things, the state deemed it unqualified to receive limited Medicaid funding, instead sending those resources to other clinics providing comprehensive women\u2019s health services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the right decision for South Carolinians. According to the news report, Planned Parenthood \u201chas distributed more than $899 million to affiliates to help them deliver care, but none of it went directly to medical services.\u201d Instead, much of it went to pro-abortion politicking and legal support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this case is about more than abortion, health care, or questions about state funding. It presents another opportunity for the Roberts Court to further the rule of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decades ago, the Supreme Court issued several decisions expanding federal judicial power to infer federal rights\u2014and thus the ability to file federal lawsuits\u2014in statutes involving Congress\u2019s spending power. Predictably, federal courts have repeatedly inserted themselves into the relationship between the federal government and the states\u2014even when Congress hasn\u2019t clearly given the courts that role\u2014by \u201cdiscovering\u201d rights in silent statutory text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, the Roberts Court has chipped away at those decisions\u2014slowly restoring the courts to their proper place. But not all lower courts have gotten the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At oral argument, I asked the court to reaffirm that, unless Congress speaks with a \u201cclear voice\u201d and \u201cunambiguously confers\u201d a federal right in a spending clause statute, the federal courts have no role to play in policing how states administer spending clause programs. The justices were responsive to that message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kavanaugh noted \u201cconfusion in the lower courts\u201d and suggested that unless a spending clause statute has the words \u201cright,\u201d \u201centitlement,\u201d \u201cprivilege,\u201d or \u201cimmunities,\u201d it doesn\u2019t confer a federal right for an individual Medicaid recipient to drag a state into federal court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gorsuch explained that Congress can \u201csay an individual should be entitled to these benefits but not want to create a right of enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Samuel Alito observed that the spending clause language necessary to create a right enforceable in federal court must be \u201cquite extraordinary,\u201d something that makes the statute \u201creally atypical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barrett questioned whether, given the relatively benign language of the statute, Congress would have actually wanted beneficiaries to \u201clitigate the qualifications\u201d of disqualified providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments like these suggest a willingness to disallow federal lawsuits when a state disqualifies a provider that, according to one former employee mentioned in the news report, has operated its facilities like a \u201cconveyor belt,\u201d resulting in some women receiving the wrong medications and even being prepped for the wrong procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Roberts Court has the opportunity to reaffirm its intent to be a court that applies the rules\u2014not one that makes them. And it can remind the lower courts, once again, of their responsibility to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case is\u00a0Medina v. Planned Parenthood S. Atl<\/a>., U.S., No. 23-1275, argued 4\/2\/25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Bursch<\/a>\u00a0is senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy with Alliance Defending Freedom and counsel of record for South Carolina officials in\u00a0Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: John Bursch, originally published April 7, 2025, Bloomberg Law.com Alliance Defending Freedom\u2019s John Bursch says the Supreme Court can solidify its reputation as an institution that enforces the law rather than creating it. Chief Justice John Roberts famously told Congress during his 2005 confirmation hearing, \u201cJudges are like umpires. 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