The Maga legal networks that could 💥topple Planned Parenthood 💥and gut women’s healthcare:
In the second year of Donald Trump’s presidency,
a young lawyer with crisply shorn blond hair approached the podium at a gathering for Texas members of the Federalist Society,
a conservative legal group that wields immense power in the US judicial system.
As vice-president of the group’s Fort Worth chapter, #Matthew #Kacsmaryk had the honor of presenting the first speaker.
“We are blessed to have Judge #Edith #Jones,” Kacsmaryk announced.
Jones, a longtime judge on the US fifth circuit court of appeals,
stepped on stage to introduce the evening’s guest, her friend,
the supreme court justice #Clarence #Thomas.
In her introduction, Jones also hailed the four new conservative judges Trump had appointed to join her on the appeals court.
“They’ve raised the bar for the fifth circuit since I got on,” she said. “And that’s thanks to the #Federalist #Society, to Leonard.”
#Leonard #Leo needed no last name in his introduction to this crowd
as he took his seat in a black leather chair across from Thomas.
The justice was the featured speaker
but Leo may have been the most important person in the American legal system in that room
– a conservative activist who had built the Federalist Society into a political powerhouse
and helped Trump create the supreme court majority that,
in 2022, erased federal protections for abortion.
His influence continues to be on display now in one of the most consequential cases moving through the American legal system
– one that seeks to strike another blow to abortion rights
💥and could possibly bankrupt Planned Parenthood,
one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare for women.
It’s a lawsuit that has been filed by an anti-abortion activist tied to Leo and heard by judges
– from the lower courts to the fifth circuit appeals court
– who are also linked to Leo
Three of the people on the stage at the Federalist Society event in Fort Worth in 2018
– Kacsmaryk, Jones and Leo
– have all played key roles in the case.
Though the stakes in this case couldn’t be higher for one of the nation’s oldest healthcare providers,
it is about more than abortion or healthcare.
The lawsuit is a parable about Leo’s power amid a presidential election season
whose outcome will probably determine to what extent Leo will continue to reshape the makeup and ideology of the nation’s courts.
The case was filed in February 2021 by an anti-abortion activist
who had conducted what he described as an
“extensive undercover investigation” of the organization.
He accuses Planned Parenthood of fraud
– claiming that it owes $1.8bn in fines, fees and reimbursements to the Medicaid program.
It’s an amount that could force the 108-year-old nonprofit healthcare provider to shutter clinics across the country.
The lawsuit is titled
"USA v Planned Parenthood"
because it was filed under a federal whistleblower law
that allows citizens to sue on behalf of the US government
over allegations that federal programs have been defrauded.
It is the latest in a series of legal actions that started in 2015
after Texas’s health officials used footage from the activist’s hidden-camera recordings as a basis to expel Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program.
The activist and his allies claimed the videos showed Planned Parenthood was illegally selling fetal tissue and endangering pregnant people’s health.
Planned Parenthood repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Investigations in multiple states triggered by the video resulted in no disciplinary action against the healthcare provider.
The US government
– the source of 90% of the Medicaid funds paid to Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas
– disputes that Planned Parenthood owes the federal government money.
Federal officials say in a court filing that they found no evidence that Planned Parenthood had improperly billed for its services
and that they found no reason Planned Parenthood should have been removed from Medicaid.
Experts in healthcare law expected the case to be dismissed quickly.
Yet none of these facts are as important to understanding the significance of this case as knowing where it was filed:
in the federal courthouse in Amarillo, Texas
– home to zero Planned Parenthood clinics.
This wasn’t an accident.
The US district court in Amarillo is under the purview of the US fifth circuit court of appeals,
making it likely that any upward appeals in Planned Parenthood’s case would be heard in the hard-right appeals court,
including by judges appointed by Trump or other conservative stalwarts like Jones.
And by the time the Planned Parenthood case was filed, Kacsmaryk
– that young attorney on stage making introductions at the Federalist Society event in Texas
– had been serving as the federal district court judge for Amarillo for nearly two years.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/22/maga-courts-planned-parenthood-case?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
ButterWord
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
Chuck Darwin
DrBob, 🧠 Mechanic
