Happy to share my latest with @naomicahn.bsky.social and @maxineeichner.bsky.social on Mahmoud, forthcoming in the Duke Law Journal and now on SSRN:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
And when you are done, read this important piece by @greerdonley.bsky.social and Chip Carter on originalism and personhood:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
On X, Josh Craddock is posting his critique of Reva Siegel's article on the weaknesses of arguments about fetal personhood:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Read both papers and decide for yourself. :)
Curious what's to come for state ballot initiative battles in 2026? Check out my latest for the Brennan Institute:
statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...
Not presumptuous at all! Will look forward to reading. :)
Writing a piece on the history and current use of the idea of "biological sex" with Reva Siegel now--check out what it's doing below. The idea is playing a major role in these cases--and in the Court's potential rethinking of sex discrimination writ large. Stay tuned for more on that!
This will also delay resolution of the issue, which may suit the Trump Administration, while leaving open the possibility that the judge to whom the case is transferred will buy the arguments about the Comstock Act and FDA authority.
Two more important things: 1) this suit is meant to get a federal court to finally interpret the Comstock Act as a ban/ force a response from SCOTUS and Trump; 2) it reinforces arguments for fetal personhood (note that is a class action on behalf of all "fathers of unborn children")
Courts in NY or CA were never going to enter antiabortion judgments. The goal? Win in federal court and force compliance. As far as that goes, there are strategic advantages to a civil wrongful death suit brought by a private citizen. Don't sleep on what this means for abortion-protective states.
We were long promised that cross-border wars over abortion would center on wrongful death suits brought by men. This may be the start, in a suit filed by Jonathan Mitchell. Why is this a big deal?
It may feel like it's not because the TX state suit and Louisiana prosecution didn't go anywhere. /1
Medina on its own will likely harder for plaintiffs to enforce other civil rights in federal court. And as far as reproductive health is concerned, this case could be part of a one-two punch if Trump's Big Beautiful Bill passes.
Skrmetti caps off decades of movement work to rethink sex discrimination jurisprudence across the board. The goal was to ensure law could regulate based on biological difference, broadly defined --as one ADF attorney explained, to show that “one cannot deny the reality of biological sex.”
Look at how much work the Court's abortion cases do here. The majority cites Dobbs to say that regulating a medical condition/procedure isn't sex discrimination, and another abortion case, Gonzales v. Carhart, to suggest that legislatures deserve discretion when there is scientific uncertainty.
Striking story: a man accused of putting abortion pills into his girlfriend's drink without her consent is being charged not with criminal abortion or reproductive coercion but with capital murder in Texas. A test for personhood politics in the state.
www.star-telegram.com/news/local/c...
The strategy in this case, involving what movement members call a guardian for the unborn, has been a defining strategy for fetal personhood since the 1960s. There are more federal personhood cases in the pipeline like this one in MN: www.mprnews.org/story/2024/1...
Good point
The thrust: hospitals didn't know what to do because of Biden. The Trump Admin vows to enforce the law to prevent serious harm to "the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child."
No guidance about how hospitals should, but a clear nod to the idea that the unborn child counts as a patient too.
Today, the Trump Admin issued this on EMTALA. What does it mean?
www.cms.gov/newsroom/pre...
The study designed to give Trump a chance to revisit the rules governing mifepristone wasn't isolated. Here's the sequel; we'll see if it prompts HHS to end telehealth access. lozierinstitute.org/the-origins-...
Do you have the PDF? When I try the links from the MO courts? I get this error message from the link
Anyone have a copy of the MO Supreme Court order from yesterday, and Judge Zhang's February ruling? The MO courts page seems to be down?
Huge news. This bill was heralded as a model for other states. My guess is that it was taken down by its language blocking state courts from ruling on its constitutionality. Don't be surprised if many of these proposals are back, in TX and elsewhere, minus that idea.
worth the wait - this week's #WTHealth podcast! With @alicemiranda.bsky.social, @annaedney.bsky.social, and @sarahkarlin-smith.bsky.social, plus @maryrziegler.bsky.social on her new personhood book!
kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast...
The GA AG claims that Adriana Smith doesn't have to be kept on life support because taking her off wouldn't qualify as a "direct abortion" and violate the state's ban. But that's wrong because GA's law is a *fetal personhood* law. Want to learn more? I have a book!
www.amazon.com/Personhood-N...
AP's reporting on GA may confuse readers. It says pro-lifers are divided on personhood bills. That's true of bills authorizing punishment of women but NOT of the idea of personhood, which is what is driving events in Georgia. This isn't an outlier.
apnews.com/article/preg...
To be clear, it’s not that there are five votes to *uphold* Trump’s patently unlawful and unconstitutional limits on birthright citizenship; it’s that there seem to be five votes to hold that district courts can grant relief only to plaintiffs—so the policy would go into effect against all others.
"Investigation" into mifepristone has been a defining policy. At first, this was a way to buy time, given that the abortion issue hurts Republicans. Now it looks like political cover. Trump's past talk of state's rights will be portrayed as sincere; he will say that new data have changed his mind.
Wow--honored that @npr picked Personhood as the book of the day.
www.npr.org/2025/05/08/1...
You can pick up a copy here: www.amazon.com/Personhood-N...
Trump has seen stories like this: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202.... Why does abortion seem like less of an issue? Because the status quo hasn't changed. Abortion will become a major electoral issue the minute something major happens. Trump is trying to manage that without losing abortion foes.
Want to make sense of the Trump filing yesterday? Remember it says nothing about FDA approval of mifepristone or whether the Comstock Act is an abortion ban. Trump is giving himself room to do whatever he wants on mifepristone on his own timeline. And one more thing:
