State of Idaho v. United States of America
Description: The Biden administration is attempting to use federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, to force emergency room doctors to perform abortions that are illegal under Idaho law.
Doctors among those supporting Idaho's pro-life law at 9th Circuit
SEATTLE – Twenty states, women affected by abortion, and several pro-life groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in State of Idaho v. United States of America asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to stop the Biden-Harris administration from misusing federal law to override Idaho’s Defense of Life Act. Idaho’s law protects the lives of women and their unborn children, preventing doctors from performing abortions unless necessary to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest.
The Office of the Idaho Attorney General, with the assistance of attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, filed an opening brief with the court earlier this month in support of allowing the state to fully protect life.
In August 2022, the Biden-Harris administration sued Idaho, claiming that it could use the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act and pay private hospitals to violate Idaho’s protections for life. But as Idaho explains, the federal government cannot use its Spending Clause power to pay private parties to circumvent state law.
“Both Idaho’s law and EMTALA seek to protect the lives of women and their unborn children, and the consistency between those laws makes us confident about the future of this case,” said ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley, vice president of the ADF Center for Life and Regulatory Practice. “Moreover, the government’s claim that it can use its spending power to override any state law it doesn’t like is breathtaking. It’s also wrong. The Biden-Harris administration can’t pay private hospitals to violate state law. Under Idaho’s law, doctors will continue to provide care to women experiencing ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and life-threatening conditions. We join this broad range of advocates in urging the court to end the administration’s unlawful overreach and protect the people’s freedom to preserve life.”
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to the 9th Circuit for further consideration. That court will hear the case in December.
“EMTALA cannot be read to preempt state laws regulating medicine, including abortion restrictions,” explains the brief filed by Indiana and 19 other states. “The statute requires hospitals accepting Medicaid and Medicare funds to stabilize patients with emergency medical conditions. But EMTALA does not purport to establish national standards as to what care is, or is not, medically necessary or appropriate. It simply prevents hospitals from refusing to stabilize patients using otherwise lawful medical procedures. Construing EMTALA’s stabilization requirement as requiring hospitals to provide abortions in violation of state law is particularly implausible.”
“By definition, measures taken to save the mother, the preborn child, or both are not considered ‘abortions’ in either common or medical parlance,” adds the brief filed by The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists. “The effort to blur this terminology is nothing more than a misguided attempt to both normalize induced abortions and to conscript EMTALA into requiring the provision of those abortions nationwide.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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Friend-of-the-court briefs filed with U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
- Advancing American Freedom
- American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists
- American Center for Law & Justice
- America's Future, U.S. Constitutional Rights Legal Defense Fund, Judicial Action Group, Restoring Liberty Action Committee, and Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund
- Charlotte Lozier Institute
- Ethics and Public Policy Center
- Life Legal Defense Foundation
- Manhattan Institute
- Minnesota Family Council, Kansas Family Voice, and 18 other family policy organizations
- National Right to Life Committee
- NC Values Institute
- Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas
- States of Indiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming
- Women hurt by abortion
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ABOUT Kristen Waggoner
As the CEO, president, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom, Kristen Waggoner leads the faith-based organization in advancing every person's God-given right to live and speak the truth in the U.S. and around the world. She oversees more than 450 ADF team members in 10 global offices. Since 2011, ADF has won 15 cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, three of which were argued by Waggoner: Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Uzuebgunam v. Presczewski, and 303 Creative v. Elenis. ADF also has a strong record of international success at the European Court of Human Rights, United Nations, and other leading courts and tribunals and has secured the release of more than 1,000 imprisoned Christians. After clerking with Washington Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Sanders, Waggoner practiced law for over 16 years at a Seattle firm before joining ADF in 2013. She is Peer Review Rated AV® Preeminent™ in Martindale-Hubbell. Waggoner is a sought-after public speaker who often appears in national and international media outlets.
ABOUT John Bursch
John Bursch is senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy with Alliance Defending Freedom. Bursch has argued 12 U.S. Supreme Court cases and more than 30 state supreme court cases since 2011, and a recent study concluded that among all frequent Supreme Court advocates who did not work for the federal government, he had the 3rd highest success rate for persuading justices to adopt his legal position. Bursch served as solicitor general for the state of Michigan from 2011-2013. He has argued multiple Michigan Supreme Court cases in eight of the last ten terms and has successfully litigated hundreds of matters nationwide, including six with at least $1 billion at stake. As part of his private firm, Bursch Law PLLC, he has represented Fortune 500 companies, foreign and domestic governments, top public officials, and industry associations in high-profile cases, primarily on appeal. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1997 from the University of Minnesota Law School and is admitted to practice in numerous federal district and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
ABOUT Erin Morrow Hawley
Erin Morrow Hawley serves as senior counsel and vice president of the Center for Life and regulatory practice at Alliance Defending Freedom. Before joining ADF, Hawley practiced appellate law at Kirkland and Ellis LLP, Bancroft LLP, and King & Spalding LLP. Hawley has litigated extensively before the U.S. Supreme Court as well as numerous federal courts of appeals and state courts of last resort. She also worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, serving as counsel to Attorney General Michael Mukasey. As an academic, Hawley served as an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri and she also taught constitutional law as a senior fellow at the Kinder Institute for Constitutional Democracy. Hawley is a former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Hawley received her bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Texas A&M University and her law degree from Yale Law School where she served as a Coker Fellow in Constitutional Law and on the Yale Law Journal. She is an active member of the Missouri and District of Columbia bars and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and various federal courts of appeals.