The Supreme Court will hear a major abortion case.
Activists demonstrating for and against abortion rights in front of the Mississippi state capitol in Jackson, Miss. in 2019.Credit.Andrea Morales for The New York Times
May 17, 2021, 9:52 a.m. ET
The Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear a case from Mississippi challenging Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. The case will give the court’s new 6-to-3 conservative majority its first opportunity to weigh in on state laws restricting abortion.
The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, No. 19- 1392, concerns a law enacted by the Republican-dominated Mississippi legislature that banned abortions if “the probable gestational age of the unborn human” was determined to be more than 15 weeks. The statute included narrow exceptions for medical emergencies or “a severe fetal abnormality.”
SC Gov. McMaster signs execution bill into law, electric chair ready for use Emily Bohatch, The State (Columbia, S.C.)
May 17 COLUMBIA, S.C. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill into law Friday officially bringing back the electric chair and introducing the firing squad to perform executions of death row inmates. The families and loved ones of victims are owed closure and justice by law, McMaster tweeted Monday. Now, we can provide it.
McMaster signed the bill into law two days after the Senate voted to agree on small changes the House made to the legislation.
Conservative lawmakers pushed the execution legislation forward this year in response to a years-long nationwide reluctance on the part of drug companies to sell their products to states looking to use them in executions. As a result, South Carolina has not been able to obtain the drugs to administer a lethal injection in years.
Dive Brief:
The United States Supreme Court should keep in place a lower court ruling that bars hospitals from receiving higher Medicare reimbursements for outpatient services compared to other providers, according to a brief HHS filed late last week.
The 33-page brief filed with the high court is in response to a petition by the American Hospital Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges to hear the case. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled last July that HHS had the right to cut payments to hospital-owned facilities in order to achieve site neutrality, reversing the judgment of a district court.