Split Supreme Court Leaves Texas Abortion Law in Effect, but Says Providers May Sue

Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News

In the second-most anticipated abortion case of the year, eight justices on the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that abortion providers can challenge a Texas law that has effectively banned most abortions in the state since it was allowed to take effect in September. But the court also ruled that the federal Justice Department could not intervene in the dispute, and it refused to block the law for now.

Nonetheless, the justices were sharply divided in their opinions on the case. The majority opinion in the Texas decision, Whole Woman’s Health et al. v. Jackson et al., did not directly address the fate of abortion rights in the United States. Rather, the conservative, anti-abortion majority on the court is expected to take on that larger question in a separate case out of Mississippi that was argued Dec. 1.

In fact, the majority opinion, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, directly acknowledged as much. Whether the Texas law is constitutional “is not before the court,” he wrote. “Nor is the wisdom [of the Texas law] as a matter of public policy.”

A hint as to the coming showdown over abortion rights is included in a plurality opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts — and joined by the three liberal justices. The Texas law, wrote Roberts, “has had the effect of denying the exercise of what we have held is a right protected under the Federal Constitution.”

The Texas law, known as SB 8, is similar to laws passed by several other states over the past few years in that it bans abortion after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually about six weeks into pregnancy. That is in direct contravention of Supreme Court precedents in 1973’s Roe v. Wade and 1992’s Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, which say states cannot ban abortion until “viability,” about 22 to 24 weeks. The Texas law also makes no exception for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

SB 8, however, varies from other state “heartbeat” laws because it has a unique enforcement mechanism that gives state officials no role. Rather, it leaves enforcement to the general public, by authorizing civil suits against not just anyone who performs an abortion, but also anyone who “aids and abets” an abortion, which could include those who drive patients to an abortion clinic or counsel them. Those who sue and win would be guaranteed damages of at least $10,000. Opponents of the law call that a “bounty” to encourage people to sue their neighbors.

Supporters of the law have said it was specifically designed to prevent federal courts from blocking the law, since no state officials are involved in enforcement and therefore are not responsible for it.

It was specifically that enforcement mechanism that the Supreme Court considered during three hours of oral arguments that were speedily scheduled on Nov. 1. The question before the justices was not directly whether the Texas ban is unconstitutional, but whether either the abortion providers or the federal government could challenge it in court.

In the end the court ruled that while the abortion providers could sue some, but not all, of the Texas officials included in their lawsuit, the Justice Department could not intervene. In a separate, two paragraph ruling, the court said the case brought by the federal government seeking to intervene, United States v. Texas, was “improvidently granted.”

The justices also noted that Thursday a state court in Texas held the law unconstitutional, but that case affects only roughly a dozen individual suits.

As she has been since the court first addressed the case last summer, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was scathing in her criticism. By allowing the Texas law to continue in effect, she wrote in a dissent, “The Court thus betrays not only the citizens of Texas but also our constitutional system of government.”

The case returns to the federal district court in Texas.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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Castille Urbana is bringing 40 units to 3rd Avenue South in downtown St. Pete – St. Pete Rising

The Domus Urbana sale went so well that NJR Companies decided to repeat the process with Castille Urbana at 600 3rd Avenue South, just 50 meters east of Domus Urbana. Castille Urbana will follow the same concept of offering a luxurious living experience without the high prices.

The 5-story building will include 40 two- and three-bedroom apartments with floor plan options ranging from 1,158 to 1,650 square feet. Future residents expect modern design and elegantly furnished living spaces as well as lifestyle amenities such as a common room, fitness center, dog park and charging stations for electric cars.

Prices for Castille Urbana, already 35% reserved, start at a mid-range $ 500,000. For comparison: other luxury developments such as Saltaire, 400 Central and The Bismarck started this year with units starting at 800,000 US dollars.

“We are very pleased to give even more people the opportunity to experience downtown St. Petersburg,” said Rauenhorst. “We have worked hard to bring the perfect mix of design and convenience with just the right balance to offer prices that are lower than expected.”

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A new dunkin might come to this Gainesville exit

A Dunkin Donuts store could be part of a retail building planned on Jesse Jewell Parkway near Interstate 985 at Exit 24.

The store would be in a 6,070-square-foot building at 374 and 400 Crescent Drives, across from Hall County Farmers Market.

“We have a promise from (Dunkin) to occupy the first unit,” says developer Moez Hasni in a city document. “The rest of the tenants have not yet been determined, but we are confident that we will win more national tenants once construction has started.”

According to the city, Hasni is aiming to include the property in a general industrial park category.

He is due to appear before the Gainesville Planning and Appeals Board on Tuesday, December 14th at 5:30 p.m. The Planning Board recommends approval or rejection. Gainesville City Council will have the final say in a later session.

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Who you should get excited about

The Miami Dolphins are finally going to have their farewell week, and it comes at a good time. Towards the end of the season there is a winning streak of 5 games. Now they have to sit back and watch the teams that are ahead of them jump further forward or fall back on them.

On Thursday evening, the Dolphins got a little help from the Vikings when they knocked down the Steelers. Pittsburgh is still ahead of the Dolphins in the overall standings for two reasons. First, they were tied with the Lions, and second, John Harbaugh went for two and failed. The Steelers have only six defeats despite six wins thanks to the draw.

While Pittsburgh will stay ahead of Miami this week, they’re not playing very well.

On Sunday, the Dolphins fan base has plenty of games to watch and get excited for teams they wouldn’t normally fight for.

• Jacksonville, Tennessee – 1:00 Sunday Root for Jax

Getting passionate about the jaguars is hard, especially if you’re a jaguar fanatic. Trevor Lawrence has had a TD in the last five games and has only thrown more than one TD once. Week one when he threw three. Needless to say, a Titans team without Derrick Henry shouldn’t have a problem knocking the Jaguars down on Sunday. Still, root for a miracle.

• Las Vegas, Kansas City – 1:00 Sunday Root for KC

The Raiders are the Jekyll and Hyde team of AFC West. One week they look great and the next they are trying to recover in the 4th quarter hoping for pass-interference calls to move the ball. Firing for the Chiefs is the best that can happen to Miami. The Raiders are 6-6 in the season so a loss holds them together with the Dolphins despite owning the head-to-head tie-breaker should it come into play.

• Baltimore, Cleveland – 1:00 am Sunday root for the ravens

Granted, I hate fighting for the ravens. I’m not a fan of the Steelers, and I’m not a huge fan of the Browns either. The only team I can really take at AFC North are the Bengals. I blame the Browns fan base for not liking this team. Normally I’d be cheering the Browns against the Ravens, but this week it’s better for the Ravens to take control of this game.

The Browns are 6-6 and one loss keeps the Dolphins attached to them.

As an aside, the Ravens’ schedule is pretty tough with games against the Rams, Packers and Bengals and wraps against the Steelers. If the Ravens finish the season with 10 wins and catch up with the Dolphins, Miami wins that tie-break. This could be a game that could work both ways in Miami’s favor.

• NY Giants at Los Angeles Chargers – 4:05 Sunday Root for the Giants

The Chargers are one game ahead of the Dolphins with seven wins. Loss will allow the dolphins to keep up with them. Problem is, the Giants are a total mess right now and the Chargers are trying to keep up with the 8-4 Chiefs in the west.

• Detroit at Denver – 4:05 am Sunday Root for Detroit

Former Miami Dolphins interim head coach Dan Campbell scored an emotional first win last Sunday and the Lions will have to feed on it, beating the much better Broncos on Sunday. The Broncos are 6-6 and could win a game against Miami with a win.

• San Francisco, Cincinnati – 4:25 Sunday Root for the 49ers

While it would be nice to see the 49ers drop this game and move the Dolphins picks a little closer to a top ten picks in the first round, a Bengals defeat keeps them just one game ahead of the Dolphins for that possibly last game card on site.

• Buffalo in Tampa Bay – 4:25 Sunday Root for the Bucs

There is rarely a time to fight for the bills and this is definitely not one of them. The Bills lost last Monday night to a Patriots team who threw only three passes during the entire game. Tom Brady will throw a lot more.

Buffalo is one game ahead of the Dolphins and the Bucs could keep it that way.

• When it all goes to Miami

If everything goes in Miami’s favor this weekend, the Dolphins won’t jump up the standings, but they will be in a more favorable position for the past few weeks.

The Dolphins are 6-7 in the season, with the Jets coming to Miami every week starting Sunday. This is what the table could look like if everything fits this weekend.

• Miami – 6-7
• Denver – 6-7
• Raider – 6-7
• Steelers – 6-6-1
• Buffalo – 7-6
• Bengal – 7-6
• Chargers – 7-6

The remaining top teams all lead their divisions. That weekend’s result would place the Dolphins within one game of the two wild card courses with four games remaining.

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Tallahassee Community College will hold the opening ceremony on Saturday

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) – Tallahassee Community College will be holding a fall-start ceremony on Saturday at 10 a.m.

The ceremony will take place at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

According to the college, more than 450 students have agreed to attend the ceremony.

The Saturday ceremony will be the first in-person ceremony since 2019. The beginning will be available online at www.YouTube.com/YourTCC22 for those who choose not to attend in person.

“Our graduates worked so hard to reach this milestone and juggle their studies with the historic challenges of the global pandemic,” said Dr. Jim Murdaugh, President of Tallahassee Community College. “I hope you have learned that no matter what life throws in your way, you are able to overcome it.”

Mark Wilson, President and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, will deliver the keynote.

TCC says it has invited its Fall 2019 and 2020 grads to attend this personal opening ceremony as their original ceremonies were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Billions targeted to wildlife conservation under bipartisan push in Congress

A bipartisan pair of senators have called for Congress to approve billions in new funding for states to manage wildlife recovery work.

During a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday, Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said a bill they introduced this year would help protect 1,600 threatened species, relieve the burden on state wildlife agencies, and spare private landowners from having to deal with federal regulations related to the Endangered Species Act.

The bill would provide $1.3 billion annually for states, tribes, and territories to do species conservation work. It would be paid for with revenue from enforcement actions against those who violate environmental regulations.

Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) introduced companion legislation in the House.

Heinrich and Blunt have won support from both parties for the bill, although senators from both sides of the aisle cautioned that the revenue source was too unpredictable — and perhaps too paltry.

Heinrich said the extra federal cash for state and local efforts would add a critical tool for species recovery. The numbers of endangered or threatened species have continued to increase, despite the successes of state programs and federal Endangered Species Act protections, he said.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change this paradigm and save thousands of species with a solution that matches the magnitude of the challenge,” he said.

Sara Parker Pauley, the director of the Missouri Department of Conservation, told the panel the bill would help states complete federally mandated conservation plans. Existing funding only enables 5 percent of the actions called for across state plans, she said.

“The states have done their parts, really without the funding,” she said. “We’ve been given a mandate. The funding hasn’t come with it.”

While boosting federal money for wildlife conservation, the bill is also meant to distance federal involvement in species management, in part by keeping species off the Endangered Species Act list.

“A significant part of the goal here is to work with these state agencies so the federal government never has to be involved in an endangered species situation,” Blunt said.

Collin O’Mara, the president & CEO of the advocacy group National Wildlife Federation, told the panel that the Endangered Species Act designations that would result from inaction would be much more costly to the federal government and private sector.

“Imagine if the monarch butterfly ends up listed. The impact on farms all across the country is massive,” O’Mara said, referring to the insect with a famously broad range in the Western Hemisphere.

“I’m convinced we can save most species through proactive, collaborative work and save hundreds of billions of dollars of private-sector cost.”

The funding would help keep species numbers from reaching critical lows, O’Mara said. Working to protect species before they reach endangered status is more cost-effective and gives species a greater chance of survival.

Funding from fines, penalties

The bill would use money raised through criminal fines and penalties from violations of natural resource and environmental laws.

Leaders of the committee, Chairman Thomas Carper, (D-Del.), and ranking Republican Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, raised concerns the source of the bill’s funding could be too unstable to support the ambitious spending.

“As drafted, the legislation identifies a funding source that may not be reliable or fully pay for the bill’s spending,” Carper said.

“As I understand it, the bill will still result in $14 billion in direct, mandatory spending over a 10-year period,” Capito said. “This is an issue that we need to consider against the background of the growth of our debt and deficit during this pandemic.”

Blunt said he and Heinrich “found a funding source we believe works.”

Carper also said he wanted to see more funding for federal agencies, including the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“While we should absolutely address the funding needs of our states and tribes, we cannot afford to ignore the legitimate needs of our federal agencies and other partners,” he said.

In addition to Blunt and Heinrich, 16 Democrats and 15 Republican senators co-sponsored the bill, although neither Carper nor Capito have attached their names. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is a co-sponsor, but not U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.

In the House, Florida Democrats Charlie Crist, Al Lawson, Stephanie Murphy, and Darren Soto are cosponsors and Republicans Carlos Giménez, John Rutherford, and Maria Elvira Salazar.

Capito said Wednesday she was “eager” to work with Heinrich and Blunt to improve the bill and was hopeful the bill could move forward.

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New omicron variant found in at least 25 states; FL could see more cases soon

With the omicron variant continuing to circulate in the United States, a University of South Florida virologist warns Floridians to be on guard for the spread of the variant throughout the state, even though only few case have been detected so far.

A spokesperson from the Florida Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed two cases of the World Health Organization-designated “variant of concern” — one in Tampa and another in St. Lucie County — but declined to provide details to the Florida Phoenix.

The state has laboratories for “genomic sequencing and maintains surveillance of emerging variants in Florida,” such as omicron, state health officials said in an email this week.

But that in no way means the state has detected every case of the new variant, according Dr. Michael Teng, associate professor of medicine at USF.

“The fact of the matter is we only sequence about 5 percent of our cases so there’s probably a lot more out there that we don’t know about just because we don’t sequence everything,” Teng said in a phone conversation.

Meanwhile, as of Friday morning, the omicron variant has been detected in 25 states, according to The New York Times. The WHO classified omicron as a variant of concern on Nov. 26 as it began to spread rapidly in South Africa.

According to a map from the Times, cases of the variant have been found in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

“This omicron variant is spreading and it’s spreading pretty quickly in places like South Africa and we are seeing a little bit more in the U.K. [United Kingdom],” Teng said.

Teng said that, based on findings released this week, which haven’t been peer reviewed yet, “it looks like at least the antibodies we get from vaccination or previous infection are not as effective against omicron as they are against previous versions” of the virus.

While studies are still underway into vaccine effectiveness against the new variant and its transmissibility, early reports suggest omicron is more transmissible but causes milder cases of COVID compared to the delta variant, according to a report from the Washington Post.

Still, Teng suggested Floridians continue to follow safety measures to protect themselves and others, such as wearing a mask, avoiding large crowds, and other protocols.

“I would say we’ve become really relaxed recently but I would say that it is time to really buckle up and do the things we really need to do,” he said. “If you’re not vaccinated, get vaccinated. If you’re not boosted [COVID-19 booster shot], get boosted if you’re eligible.”

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