United States of America v. State of Idaho

The Biden administration attempted to use federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, to force emergency room doctors to perform abortions that are illegal under Idaho law.

Case Timeline

• August 2022: The Biden administration sued the state of Idaho seeking to override Idaho’s Defense of Life Act, and a federal district court temporarily enjoined Idaho’s law in emergency rooms.
• May 2023: The district court denied Idaho’s motion for reconsideration.
• October 2023: A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit unanimously agreed to allow Idaho to enforce its life-saving law.
• November 2023: An en banc 9th Circuit panel reversed the three-judge panel’s decision and prevented Idaho from enforcing its law. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador assembled a team of Supreme Court experts that included his Office of Solicitor General, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Cooper & Kirk to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent the Biden administration from manipulating EMTALA to override Idaho’s law.
• January 2024: The Supreme Court agreed to hear Idaho’s case and said the state could enforce its law and protect the lives of women and children as the litigation continues.
• April 2024: The Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case.
• June 2024: The Court declined to rule on the merits of the case, instead sending the case back to the 9th Circuit for further consideration while leaving Idaho’s ability to enforce its law “almost entirely intact.”
• March 2025: The Trump administration and the state of Idaho mutually agreed to dismiss the case, and the injunction preventing Idaho from enforcing its law was dissolved.