Two Unhinged Cases Before the Supreme Court This Week

Can states force women to the brink of death instead of giving them abortions? Is it a crime to be homeless? Should Brett Kavanaugh and his unelected buddies be the ones to decide?

We’re neck-deep into SCOTUS oral arguments season, and two cases the court is hearing this week deal are a pretty bleak reflection of how this country views women and unhoused people.

The first case concerns how far cities can go to police homelessness, stemming from a challenge to a Grants Pass, Oregon, law that slapped people with a $295 criminal fine for sleeping outside with as little as a blanket because they can’t afford housing. The justices must decide whether being involuntarily homeless is a constitutionally-protected status, or whether the state of not having a safe place to sleep can itself be punished as a crime.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor got to the heart of the issue during oral arguments today, asking the lawyer for Grants Pass, “Where do we put them, if every city, every village, every town, lacks compassion, and passes a law identical to this? Where are they supposed to sleep?” 

But the most jaw-dropping exchanged occurred when Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson questioned how far a criminal ban on homelessness could potentially go if the Supreme Court were to greenlight punitive measures, and the conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch had to step in and rescue the stumped attorney. Per an Economist reporter’s live tweets of the oral arguments:

Here’s a detailed explainer on the legal ins and outs of the issue from Vox’s Ian Millhiser, who predicts the June opinion will not go well for homeless people.

Having bounced that case around in their think-meats, he justices will then hear oral arguments on Wednesday from the state of Idaho, whose Republican legislature wants to be able to ban abortions with no exception for the health of the mother. The case concerns a federal law known as EMTALA, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which basically requires hospitals that receive federal funds to provide stabilizing treatments to all patients who show up with an emergency. In the wake of SCOTUS overturning Roe v. Wade, the Biden Administration had to clarify that EMTALA applies to women who need emergency abortions—a claim that Idaho’s right-wing attorneys say is “imaginary.”

Republicans have argued that it’s sufficient for an abortion ban to carve out an exception for the life of the mother, and that “health of the mother” goes too far. But we’ve already been seeing the confusion and paranoia wrought by that one narrow exception among doctors and nurses. In Texas, for instance, a pregnant woman had to bring her own foul discharge with her to the hospital to prove that a uterine infection was killing her enough to warrant an abortion. “They told her the signs of a more severe infection would include a fever of 100.4 degrees and chills,” NPR wrote. “Her discharge had to be darker. And it had to smell foul, really bad. Enough to make her retch.”

The AP published a harrowing story just last week about pregnant women being turned away from U.S. emergency rooms and having to miscarry in the lobby or in their cars. I don’t feel particularly hopeful that this SCOTUS—a full third of which was appointed by Donald Trump specifically to overturn Roe—will rule in favor of suffering pregnant women over the Christofascists who want to control them, but I’ll update you Wednesday night with any illuminating moments that arise from the arguments.

In Other News…

• The first witness in Trump’s criminal trial over hush money payments to a porn star on Monday was a man named David Pecker

• Congress might actually, seriously ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese parent company refuses to sell it, so you should begin the emotional separation process if you haven’t

• Columbia University faculty members walked out en masse today over the school calling the NYPD on students who were protesting in solidarity with Palestinians

• The retail clothing chain Express has filed for bankruptcy, which may have just turned my entire high school wardrobe into valuable vintage collectibles

Monday Streaming Recommendation

I had my doubts about Baby Reindeer, a limited series on Netflix written by and starring a UK bartender who was stalked in real life by a middle-aged Scottish woman who fancied him. The first episode is so uncomfortable—and the man ignores so many glaring red flags—that I almost had to stop watching in the middle of it. But without spoiling anything, I can assure you that the show actually unfurls into a deeply brilliant, moving, and darkly funny examination of why it took him so long to report this unhinged woman, and it’s extremely worth seeing through. (Episode 4, in particular, is genius—would love to hear your thoughts.)

Cheers and goodnight, Cappers.