Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court is made up of nine justices who were each appointed by a sitting president and usually serve life terms. They take cases unsettled between lower state courts in order to provide a ruling on important decisions for the entire country, having immense political and social impacts on people and legislation for decades to come.

First They Came for Kilmar

After World War II, German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller famously said, “First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.” We are watching this happen in real time with the Trump administration.

Donald Trump has targeted immigrants, such as Kilmar Abrego Garcia, with illegal deportation; then he came after workers’ rights, with cuts to overtime pay and rolling back rights to unionize; then he came for the hungry, with cuts to food programs and Medicaid; then he came for the low-income children, with the elimination of Head Start child care; then he came for the sick, with cuts to funding for medical research; then he came for women, with cuts to reproductive healthcare and funding for domestic violence shelters and rape crisis hotlines; then he came for disabled and elderly people, with cuts to Social Security and Medicare—and so much more.

Trump is boundary testing. If you give him an inch, he will take it all, until he has obliterated all resistance—and our democracy.

Boys Will Be Boys, But Women Are Too Emotional for the Supreme Court

Elon Musk and Peter Navarro are having a public slap fight. And while any other administration or workplace would be embarrassed by public outbursts, the White House seems to think it’s fine—because “boys will be boys,” according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

The thing with people who brush off male bad behavior, though, is that they rarely extend that patience to girls. While Leavitt was noting the White House would “let” Musk and Navarro’s “public sparring” continue, she—and the rest of the MAGA right—had no such forbearance for Amy Coney Barrett, who committed the cardinal sin of siding with the Constitution over the president in a recent Supreme Court decision, from which she dissented. The MAGA reaction was swift and ugly. Coney Barrett was a traitor—evidence that women are too empathetic to serve on the Supreme Court.

North Carolina Is Asking People to Vote According to Rules the State Hasn’t Set

Five months out, chaos continues in a state Supreme Court race that was counted, recounted and audited.

On Friday, a state appeals court reopened Pandora’s Box by calling into question more than 60,000 votes cast in North Carolina’s Nov. 5 general election. This gives the Republican candidate, Jefferson Griffin, new hope to close his 734-vote deficit, out of 5,540,090 total votes, against Democratic candidate Allison Riggs.

South Carolina Wants to Block Medicaid Patients From Planned Parenthood. Will SCOTUS Let It?

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a case that could determine whether Medicaid patients have the right to sue when states deny them access to qualified healthcare providers like Planned Parenthood.

While the legal question is narrow, a ruling in favor of South Carolina could embolden other states to cut off Medicaid funding for reproductive healthcare, disproportionately impacting low-income patients and people of color.

The War on Women Report: Women Jailed for Miscarriages, Dragged from Town Halls, and Denied Healthcare

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MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—At a town hall in Idaho, men from a private security firm grabbed Teresa Borrenpohl and forcibly dragged her from the room.
—Georgia relaunched a new maternal mortality committee, but will not reveal who the new members are.
—In a win for Montana, a district court permanently blocked multiple restrictions that would have effectively eliminated abortion access for most patients on Medicaid.

… and more.

This Week in Women’s Representation: From AOC to Alaska’s Next Governor, Women Candidates to Watch in 2024, 2028 and Beyond

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris did not lose to Donald Trump because they were women; Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announces run for governor; it’s looking increasingly likely that a woman may be elected in 2026 in Alaska; women will disproportionately feel the effect of Trump’s tariffs; and more.

On America’s 250th Anniversary, Let’s Remember Women’s Stories: The Ms. Q&A with Jill Hasday

The United States’ 250th anniversary in 2026 presents an opportunity to include women in the stories America tells about itself, according to Jill Hasday, author of the important new book, We the Men: How Forgetting Women’s Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality.

We the Men tells the stories “of so many women who deserve to be remembered,” said Hasday. It also explores the ways in which forgetting women’s ongoing struggles for equality has perpetuated injustice and promote complacency. Remembering women’s stories more often and more accurately can help the nation advance toward sex equality.

Trump Administration Drops Lawsuit to Protect Emergency Abortion Access: ‘A Cruel and Callous Act That Could Cost Pregnant Idahoans Their Lives’

The Trump administration’s recent decision to drop the Biden-era lawsuit defending emergency abortion access in Idaho under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) is another powerful indication of its intent to dismantle existing federal protections for sexual and reproductive health.

Anticipating this move, St. Luke’s Health System filed filed a new lawsuit against Idaho during the first month of Trump’s presidency. On March 3, upon learning that dismissal was imminent, St. Luke’s sought and was granted a temporary restraining order to preserve the status quo—meaning Idaho remains barred from enforcing its criminal abortion law to the extent it conflicts with EMTALA. At least for the moment, pregnant Idahoans with emergency medical conditions that pose serious threats to their health are not faced with the dilemma of whether to be airlifted out of the state to receive stabilizing abortion care or wait until an abortion becomes necessary to prevent their death. However, the case is far from over, and the eventual outcome is uncertain—especially if it winds up again before the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority.

Women’s History Month Is a Time for Optimism

Dispatches from Week 2 of Women’s History Month:

It’s Week 2 of Women’s History Month, and just knowing the federal government might well ban those three words in sequence—along with “gender,” “female,” “feminism” and about 250 others—you can bet I’m feeling extra rebellious as I write this column.

I am back from celebrating International Women’s Day (March 8) at South by Southwest. Among the festival keynotes, Chelsea Clinton urged that optimism is fundamentally a moral and political choice. Remaining optimistic, she remarked, is like “saying we do not have to accept the status quo. … We do accept that we may not be able to do everything all at once, but we can always do something.”

Women’s History Month is a solemn reminder that our reaction—and our commitment to action—also requires that we hold tight to the optimism our foremothers possessed.

Anti-Gay Marriage Former County Clerk Kim Davis Lost Again, Unanimously—But This Still Might Not Be the End

Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue same-sex couples marriage licenses, lost her appeal on Thursday of a lawsuit she previously lost at trial that was brought by same-sex couples whose constitutional right to marry she violated.

All three judges on the panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit—which included one Trump appointee—agreed that Davis should lose her appeal.

But … Davis and her lawyers could now seek Supreme Court review. In seeking such review, Davis’ lawyers could raise the question of overturning Obergefell directly to the justices.

For now, though, Davis lost—again, and unanimously—from a panel of 6th Circuit.