U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court to consider whether Trump can be barred from ballots
Colo., Maine have banned former president on ballot
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday that it would take up the case involving Colorado barring former President Donald Trump from appearing on the stateās 2024 ballot over his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
In a brief, unsigned order issued on Friday, the court granted the petition for review.
In their order the justices granted only the former presidentās petition for review and sets the case up to be heard at a rapid pace, with oral arguments now scheduled for Feb. 8 and a decision to follow that could spark Trumpās removal from the ballot in states across the country.
Trump will file his opening brief on Jan. 18, with the response by the Colorado voters and Coloradoās secretary of state to follow on Jan. 31. Trumpās reply brief is due by 5 p.m. on Feb. 5, just three days before oral arguments.
Across the nation there have been dozens of challenges to the former presidentās eligibility under the 14th Amendment filed, though many cases have been rejected by lower courts, The Hill noted.
But two states ā Colorado and Maine ā last month took the extraordinary step of removing Trump from the primary ballot.
Long-time Supreme Court reporter and SCOTUSblog contributorĀ Amy HoweĀ noted earlier this weekĀ that in a filing on Wednesday Trump told the justices that the āColorado Supreme Court has no authority to denyā him a place on the stateās ballot in the 2024 presidential election. Trump asked the justices to overturn a ruling by the state supreme court that would leave him off Coloradoās primary ballot because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol.Ā
Pointing to a Dec. 28 ruling by a Maine official that removed Trump from that stateās primary ballot, Trump contended (in a filing obtained by the Washington Post) that, if allowed to stand, the Colorado courtās decision could be āused as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide.ā
TheĀ Coloradoās High Court ruled on Dec. 19Ā that Trump is ineligible to serve as president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which bars anyone who has served as āan officer of the United Statesā and has previously taken an oath to support the Constitution from holding āany office ā¦ under the United Statesā if he has āengaged in insurrection.āĀ
Passed by Congress in 1866 and ratified in 1868, the provision was originally intended to disqualify individuals who had been federal (or state) government officials before the Civil War and had sworn to uphold the Constitution but then served in the Confederacy. The bar on service can only be overcome by a two-thirds vote of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
A group of registered Republicans and unaffiliated voters eligible to vote in Coloradoās presidential primary had brought the lawsuit, arguing that Trump should not be included on the stateās primary ballot because as president he had sworn an oath to support the Constitution but had engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6.
After a five day trial, a lower court agreed that Trump engaged in insurrection but concluded that Section 3 does not apply to the president. Specifically, it concluded, the presidency is not an āoffice ā¦ under the United States,ā and the president is not an āofficer of the United States.ā
In a lengthy 4-3 decision, the Colorado Supreme Court reversed. It held that Trump was disqualified under Section 3 from serving as president and it barred the Colorado secretary of state from listing him on the primary ballot.
The Hill reported Trump is appealing in state court Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellowsā decision that would knock the former president off the primary ballot. The case could reach the justices within weeks.
U.S. Supreme Court
US Supreme Court rules Idaho to enforce gender care ban
House Bill 71 signed in 2023
BY MIA MALDONADO | The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed Idaho to enforce House Bill 71, a law banning Idaho youth from receiving gender-affirming care medications and surgeries.
In an opinion issued Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the state of Idahoās request to stay the preliminary injunction, which blocked the law from taking effect. This means the preliminary injunction now only applies to the plaintiffs involved in Poe v. Labrador ā a lawsuit brought on by the families of two transgender teens in Idaho who seek gender-affirming care.
Mondayās Supreme Court decision enforces the gender-affirming care ban for all other trans youth in Idaho as the lawsuitĀ remains ongoing in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Idaho, both of whom represent the plaintiffs, said in a press release Monday that the ruling ādoes not touch upon the constitutionalityā of HB 71. The groups called Mondayās ruling an āawful resultā for trans Idaho youth and their families.
āTodayās ruling allows the state to shut down the care that thousands of families rely on while sowing further confusion and disruption,ā the organizations said in the press release. āNonetheless, todayās result only leaves us all the more determined to defeat this law in the courts entirely, making Idaho a safer state to raise every family.ā
Idaho Attorney General RaĆŗl Labrador in a press release said the state has a duty to protect and support all children, and that he is proud of the stateās legal stance.
āThose suffering from gender dysphoria deserve love, support and medical care rooted in biological reality,ā Labrador said. āDenying the basic truth that boys and girls are biologically different hurts our kids. No one has the right to harm children, and Iām grateful that we, as the state, have the power ā and duty ā to protect them.ā
Recap of Idahoās HB 71, and what led to SCOTUS opinion
Mondayās Supreme Court decision traces back to when HB 71 was signed into law in April 2023.
The law makes it a felony punishable for up to 10 years for doctors to provide surgeries, puberty-blockers and hormones to trans people under the age of 18. However, gender-affirming surgeries are not and were not performed among Idaho adults or youth before the bill was signed into law, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.
One month afterĀ it was signed into law, the families of two trans teens sued the state in a lawsuit alleging the bill violates the 14th Amendmentās guarantee of equal protection under the law.
In late December, just days before the law was set to take effect in the new year, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill blocked the law from taking effect under a preliminary injunction. In his decision, he said he found the families likely to succeed in their challenge.
The state of Idaho responded by appealing the district courtās preliminary injunction decision to the Ninth Circuit, to which the Ninth Circuit denied. The state of Idaho argued the court should at least enforce the ban for everyone except for the plaintiffs.
After the Ninth Circuitās denial, the Idaho Attorney Generalās Office in February sent an emergency motion to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Idaho Press reported. Mondayās U.S. Supreme Court decision agrees with the stateās request to enforce its ban on trans health care for minors, except for the two plaintiffs.
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Mia Maldonado joined the Idaho Capital Sun after working as a breaking news reporter at the Idaho Statesman covering stories related to crime, education, growth and politics. She previously interned at the Idaho Capital Sun through the Voces Internship of Idaho, an equity-driven program for young Latinos to work in Idaho news. Born and raised in Coeur d’Alene, Mia moved to the Treasure Valley for college where she graduated from the College of Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and international political economy.
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The preceding piece was previously published by the Idaho Capital Sun and is republished with permission.
The Idaho Capital Sun is the Gem Stateās newest nonprofit news organization delivering accountability journalism on state politics, health care, tax policy, the environment and more.
Weāre part of States Newsroom, the nationās largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court appears skeptical of arguments to restrict abortion pill access
Decision expected by June
Hearing oral arguments on Tuesday in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical of arguments to curtail access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
A decision in the case is expected to come in June. The court’s most conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, signaled their support for the anti-abortion plaintiffs, who seek to prohibit telemedicine prescriptions and distribution of the pill by mail.
A ruling in their favor could also undermine the ability of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to exercise its expert judgment on the safety and efficacy of medications without interference by courts ā which, by and large, are not qualified to adjudicate these questions.
Such concerns were relayed even by justices like Neil Gorsuch, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, and who warned on Tuesday that the case might stand as āa prime example of turning what could be a small lawsuit into a nationwide legislative assembly on an F.D.A. rule or any other federal government action.ā
Mifepristone was first approved in the year 2000. The drug, taken together with misoprostol, is the most commonly used method of terminating pregnancies in the U.S.
The justices’ questions also showed their skepticism toward plaintiffs’ arguments that concrete harms will result if the medication remains widely available. For instance, Gorsuch and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted healthcare providers are already permitted to opt out of providing care to which they have moral objections.
Even if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the government, preserving access to mifepristone including through telemedicine and mail-order prescriptions, more than a dozen conservative states have banned the drug and implemented near-total abortion bans pursuant to the court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court declines to hear case over drag show at Texas university
Students argue First Amendment protects performance
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a First Amendment case over a public university president’s refusal to allow an LGBTQ student group to host a drag show on campus.
The group’s application was denied without the justices providing their reasoning or issuing dissenting opinions, as is custom for such requests for emergency review.
When plaintiffs sought to organize the drag performance to raise money for suicide prevention in March 2023, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler cancelled the event, citing the Bible and other religious texts.
The students sued, arguing the move constituted prior restraint and viewpoint-based discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment. Wendler had called drag shows āderisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny,” adding that “a harmless drag show” was “not possible.”
The notoriously conservative Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who former President Donald Trump appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ruled against the plaintiffs in September, writing that āit is not clearly established that all drag shows are inherently expressive.”
Kacsmaryk further argued that the High Court’s precedent-setting opinions protecting stage performances and establishing that “speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend” was inconsistent with constitutional interpretation based on ātext, history and tradition.”
Plaintiffs appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is by far the most conservative of the nation’s 12 appellate circuit courts. They sought emergency review by the Supreme Court because the 5th Circuit refused to fast-track their case, so arguments were scheduled to begin after the date of their drag show.
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