Tag: Chief Justice John Roberts

US Supreme Court upholds Tennessee law denying adolescents gender-affirming care

Volume 405, Issue 10497
28 June 2025
WORLD REPORT  Conservative justices agreed with the state and Trump administration that banning minors’ treatment for gender dysphoria is not discriminatory. Susan Jaffe reports.   
On behalf of the court’s five other conservative members, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the law is not discriminatory because the ban restricts specific medical treatment for a specific purpose and applies equally to boys and girls. “The law does not prohibit conduct for one sex that it permits for the other.” But he also wrote that since the treatment is controversial (despite support from major medical associations), the court should defer to the judgement of state lawmakers. “Questions regarding the law’s policy are thus appropriately left to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process”, he wrote.[Continued here.]
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US Supreme Court expected to weaken abortion rights

Volume 398, Issue 10317
11 December 2021

 

WORLD REPORT   The US Supreme Court, now dominated by conservatives, heard arguments last week on the legality of a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. However, the justices signalled that they are likely to do more than uphold the law. .[Continued here.]

 

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US Supreme Court upholds abortion rights, for now

Volume 396, Number 10244

11 July 2020

 

WORLD REPORT The court’s decision means that Louisiana’s three abortion clinics will remain open. Susan Jaffe reports.

The US Supreme Court delivered the Trump administration’s third defeat in as many weeks when it overturned a Louisiana law requiring physicians who provide abortions to have local hospital-admitting privileges.

In an opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, the court declared on June 29 that “enforcing the admitting privileges requirement would drastically reduce the number and geographic distribution of abortion providers, making it impossible for many women to obtain a safe, legal abortion in the State and imposing substantial obstacles on those who could”.  [Continued here.]…

US Supreme Court upholds ACA subsidies

lancet cover 2

Volume 385, Issue 9988, 4 July 2015

WORLD REPORT    Officials expect to launch the US President’s new health project later this year. But Congress has yet to decide whether to fully fund it. The Lancet’s Washington correspondent, Susan Jaffe, reports.

ACA supporters celebrate outside the Supreme Court following the judgment on June 25 (Bloomberg)

ACA supporters celebrate outside the Supreme Court following the judgment on June 25 (Bloomberg)

Although critics still deride it as Obamacare, President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court victory last week

enshrined the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as one of his greatest domestic accomplishments. The court might have also effectively disarmed the opposition, shifting the debate to next year’s campaign for the presidency as the next chance for critics to try to dismantle the law.

But for 6·4 million Americans who could have lost the health law’s insurance subsidies—the key issue before the court—the historic ruling has a different meaning. “Thank God, I can still get my medical care”, said Jacqueline Clay, a New Jersey woman receiving treatment for breast cancer who turned 61 years of age the day the court upheld the subsidies. “I am not going to die.” [Continued in full text or PDF ]…

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The US Supreme Court decided last week that most provisions in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were constitutional. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.
Last week’s historic ruling by the US Supreme Court preserving nearly all of President Barack Obama’s landmark health law may have finally settled some legal questions, only to shift a re-energised debate about improving the American health-care system to the political arena.In addition to providing health coverage to some 32 million uninsured Americans, other changes in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will affect nearly every patient as it overhauls the US$2·7 trillion health-care system.  MORE