The Second-Order Abortion Wars Have Begun

Hello! It’s the weekend, this is The Weekender. ☕

Since the early summer death of abortion rights, it’s been assured that different facets of the issue would occupy courts of all levels for years to come. Can states police what their inhabitants do across borders? Can states protect providers who travel from places where the procedure is banned? What can doctors do, and what can they be prosecuted for, given the often unspecific language of abortion bans?

This week, the federal court showdown centered on guidance issued by the Biden administration soon after the Dobbs ruling, and the federal law that undergirds it.

The guidance reminded physicians of the administration’s interpretation of the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) — that they must perform an abortion when necessary to stabilize a patient undergoing a medical emergency, regardless of state bans.

In Texas, the state and two anti-abortion physician groups sued the government, calling the memo an “abortion mandate” meant to overturn the Dobbs ruling.

Federal judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee, ruled that the guidance went further than the underlying law, which, he argued, is silent on abortion. He stuck down the guidance within the state of Texas and nationwide, when it applies to members of the doctor groups.

In Idaho, a similar story had a different outcome. There, the Biden administration sued the state, saying that its new trigger law ran afoul of EMTALA by criminalizing abortion in every instance — except an affirmative defense physicians could use after being sued, that the procedure was necessary to avert imminent death. EMTALA mandates treatment to avert injury and damage short of that extreme.

Judge B. Lynn Winmill, a Clinton appointee, agreed with the government and blocked the new trigger law, which came online Thursday, when it conflicts with EMTALA.

The appellate level is unlikely to resolve the dispute: Idaho’s would go to the traditionally liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Texas’ to the ultra conservative 5th circuit. We could be barreling towards a Supreme Court showdown.

A senior administration official said little about the cases and the government’s next steps Thursday — only that “HHS takes seriously our authority to enforce EMTALA.”

There could be a legitimate way for the high court to split the baby: Texas’ ban, which includes an exemption for medical emergencies that threaten serious bodily harm, seems less in conflict with EMTALA than Idaho’s — the very argument the government made in an attempt to prove that Texas lacked standing to bring suit in the first place.

Or, the Supreme Court could choose not to bother with the specifics, the better to strip the administration of one of the few abortion access tools it has left. 

More on other news below. Let’s dig in.

— Kate Riga

Guilty Pleas In Biden Diary Theft Put Spotlight On Project Veritas

Project Veritas may be about to have its time in the limelight. Less in the same of fame (they’ve already achieved notoriety), and more in the sense of the phrase, loved by journalists, that sunlight is the best disinfectant. A guilty plea announced on Thursday from two people who stole Ashley Biden’s diary suggested that Project Veritas executives and employees allegedly went to great lengths to procure the documents.

It’s dirty work, and it seems from prosecutors statements’ that Project Veritas was not above it. The group allegedly paid for the woman who admitted on Thursday to stealing and trafficking the diary and other items, Aimee Harris, to fly to Manhattan with her accomplice. There, the pair met with a Project Veritas executive and an employee at a luxury hotel, where Harris allegedly described how she obtained the items – via access to a Florida home at which the Biden daughter had been staying. Project Veritas then allegedly directed Harris and her accomplice to gather more material, and sent an operative to Florida to retrieve the items and ship them back to New York.

Where will this go? It’s hard to say, but the details as stated by prosecutors are damning. The organization denies that it knew the diary and other items were stolen, and maintains that its work fell under normal journalistic practice. The probe isn’t over, though: Harris’ accomplice – Robert Kurlander – has agreed to cooperate with the FBI’s investigation.

— Josh Kovensky

A Full Account Of the Missing Jan. 6 Text Scandal

Welcome back to the ongoing saga of the missing text messages from January 6th.

As a reminder, Congress sought written communications from several federal agencies – including the Department of Homeland Security – in the wake of the attack on the Capitol complex by a right-wing mob. A federal watchdog also requested records two dozen Secret Service employees soon after.

A lot has happened on that front: After a back-and-forth over discrepancies in his reporting, DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari has refused to recuse himself from the investigation into how the texts went missing, even though top Democrats repeatedly pressed him to.

This past week, I put together a comprehensive timeline of when – and how – the text messages went missing in the first place. Is it suspicious? You decide. 

— Kaila Philo

Summer Concepcion here! My 5 years at TPM came to an end this week and I want to thank all of our readers for supporting the work that we do. I’m so grateful to have had the privilege to work with such a brilliant group of coworkers! Here are some of my favorite stories we covered this week, written by me and my colleagues, who I’ll dearly miss!

• After months of student loan borrowers holding their breath, President Biden finally unveiled a plan to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 per year, fulfilling a promise he made on the campaign trail. The plan would also extend the pause on student loan payments for borrowers until Dec. 31.
• The mudslinging between two powerful New York Democrats — Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Ny) chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), chair of the House Oversight Committee — has ended with Nadler eking out a significant win in the New York primary over his once-friend-turned-rival. Nadler and Maloney were forced to duke it out after Democratic lawmakers in New York crafted a fairly aggressive gerrymander in an effort to grab a few more seats.
• In other New York primary news: Carl Paladino, a New York Republican known for his flagrant racism, lost the Republican primary election to represent New York’s 23rd Congressional District. Paladino, a real estate developer and Donald Trump’s New York campaign co-chair in 2016, also served as a representative of the Buffalo Board of Education and had an unsuccessful New York gubernatorial bid. He was endorsed by third-ranking Republicans Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), among others.
• Good to keep in mind: former President Trump had multiple extensions to turn classified documents over to the National Archives, before the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago for the top secret records the former president stashed at his Florida resort. Read more here.

— Summer Concepcion

“I actually am the Congresswoman in Florida’s 11th District, and everyone knows it.”

– Someone who is definitely not the congressperson for Florida’s 11th District. 

Far-right conspiracy theorist and renowned shit-poster Laura Loomer – who is known for her absolutely vile racism toward Muslims and for chaining herself to the front door of Twitter HQ – is refusing to concede in her race against incumbent Rep. Dan Webster (FL) this week. 

In a meandering and at times aggressive statement on Thursday night, Loomer claimed that she had not actually lost the election – she did, by quite a lot – suggested that Webster is in such bad health that he has to “wear a Life Alert” and threatened that she has “an army” behind her willing to fight against whatever form of “voter fraud” made her lose. 

She learned from the best. 

— Nicole Lafond