In an outcome that shocked court watchers everywhere, the Supreme Court today dismissed a pair of consolidated cases challenging the Biden administration over whether the government could require all federally funded hospital emergency rooms to perform abortions, regardless of any state law to the contrary. But by punting on the case with a “dismissed as improvidently granted” order, the court left that question—at least for now—unanswered.
In Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States, the justices were asked if the Biden administration’s interpretation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, requiring abortions in emergency rooms was legal.
Congress passed EMTALA in 1986 to address the problem of hospitals refusing to treat indigent patients in emergency rooms. The law requires hospital emergency departments that accept Medicaid…
