The Supreme Court Will Hear Its First Transgender Health Care Case
What's going on: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over the legality of gender-affirming care bans for transgender minors. The justices will review challenges to a Tennessee law that bans puberty blockers and hormone therapy for anyone under 18. The Biden administration and medical groups argue that the ban prevents minors from accessing appropriate and necessary medical care and violates parental rights. Lawyers for Tennessee have said the state is acting in the public’s best interest and “to ensure that minors do not receive these treatments until they can fully understand the lifelong consequences.”
What it means: The Supreme Court’s decision isn’t expected until next year, but it will mark the first time the conservative-majority court rules on “access to healthcare for trans people.” It puts the bench in the middle of a contentious national debate. At least 25 states have some kind of ban in place against gender-affirming care for minors, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Many of these laws have been temporarily put on hold while legal challenges play out. As for what’s still on the Supreme Court’s docket, decisions on presidential immunity and emergency abortion care could come in the next few days.
New Research Links Texas' Abortion Ban to a Rise in Newborn Deaths
What's going on: A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that the number of infant deaths in Texas increased the year after the state passed a near-total abortion ban. In 2022, the infant mortality rate went up 8% in Texas compared to a 2% increase across the rest of the US. Lawmakers touted the law as necessary to save children’s lives, but the data shows it could be having the opposite effect. Texas bans abortions once a heartbeat is detected, which is usually around the six-week mark before testing for abnormalities can be done. The law does not include exemptions for congenital anomalies, even fatal conditions. The study found that these anomalies increased nearly 23% in Texas, but only 3% nationally.
What it means: This is the latest research to link higher infant mortality rates with abortion bans. One of the study's authors said the data highlights some of the consequences “that maybe people weren’t thinking about when they passed these laws.” It also highlights the trauma and medical bills that families are forced to deal with when they have to carry an infant to term when they know there is no chance of survival. The researchers said more analysis is needed to better understand the link between abortion bans and infant mortality. The study comes as the country marks two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
What's going on: The Recording Industry Association of America, which includes Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, has sued Suno and Uncharted Labs, the developer of Udio, for copyright infringement. Udio’s known for the viral AI song “BBL Drizzy.” The lawsuits allege the companies used the labels’ music, like Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and ABBA's “Dancing Queen,” to train its AI models without their consent. Neither Suno or Udio, which can instantly produce music from users’ text prompts, have publicly shared what sounds they’ve fed their AI models. In recent months, both startups have raised a combined $135 million.
What it means: Yesterday’s lawsuits stand as the first ones against music-generated AI companies, according to Reuters. This is part of a recent push by studios and artists to protect their music. In April, more than 200 artists, including Billie Eilish and the Jonas Brothers, signed an open letter demanding that AI companies stop using their technology to “infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.” Suno and Udio might have to pay damages of up to $150,000 per song, if they can’t prove they used the labels’ music with their permission. Suno’s CEO called the company’s tech “transformative” and said “it is designed to generate completely new outputs, not to memorize and regurgitate pre-existing content.”
The Supreme Court will make a decision any day now on former President Trump’s immunity case. The justices will have to decide whether Trump is shielded from prosecution on charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 election. theSkimm reached out to Caroline Polisi, a white-collar and federal criminal defense lawyer and lecturer at Columbia Law School, to discuss the implications of the case.
What is presidential immunity?
“It’s not an easy answer … The legal arguments from this case derive from a 1982 SCOTUS decision (Nixon v. Fitzgerald) in which the Supreme Court did rule that presidents and former presidents enjoy absolute immunity from civil liability for conduct and actions that occurred while they were in office,” Polisi said. “That is the nexus of where this law is here. The Trump team has taken that fundamental idea of absolute presidential immunity for official acts and tried to expand it into the criminal context. We’re not talking just about: Is there immunity, or is there not immunity? I think it’s going to come down to what constitutes an ‘official act as a president.’”
What do you expect the Supreme Court’s outcome will be in this case?
“The way the Supreme Court took up this case [and] the wording that they used, it’s pretty clear they are going to find ... that former presidents do enjoy some form of limited criminal immunity for official acts that they undertook as president,” Polisi told theSkimm. “The devil is going to be in the details with respect to how they will define that test of what constitutes the distinction between a private act or a purely personal act. Or what is within the ‘outer perimeters of official conduct.’”
What are the long-term implications of the court’s decision?
“The Supreme Court doesn’t decide specific cases. They decide questions of law, so this is going to have extreme precedential value in terms of the ramifications on future and former presidents [and] how they view their job while in office.”
PS: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Featured Expert
Caroline Polisi
White-Collar and Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer, and Lecturer at Columbia Law School
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