Laws to Watch:

---

Students for Fair Admissions, Inc.

v.

President and Fellows of Harvard College and University of North Carolina

June 29, 2023 - In a major 6-3 decision, the United States Supreme Court has struck down race-based admissions at two universities, declaring it a violation of the equal protection clause. 

“The Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause. Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful endpoints. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today,” Roberts wrote.

He also wrote that “however well-intentioned and implemented in good faith,” the admissions programs at Harvard and UNC “fail each of these criteria.”

Justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote the dissent in the Harvard case and was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Jackson wrote the dissent in the University of North Carolina case, joined by Sotomayor and Kagan.

Click the link to read the entirety of the ruling: 20-1199 Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (06/29/2023) (supremecourt.gov)

Dobbs

v. 

Jackson Women’s Health Organization

The case involved Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act, passed in 2018, which prohibited abortions after 15 weeks except for medical emergencies or severe fetal abnormalities. The act also applied penalties such as license suspension to abortion providers.  Consequently, Jackson Women’s Health organization filed suit in a federal district court and challenged the constitutionality of the Gestational Age Act. Thomas Dobbs (the petitioner) was a Mississippi State Health officer (Cornell Law School).

Ultimately, the prevailing opinion of the court, with a 6-3 opinion, overturned a 50-year precedent set by Roe v. Wade. In the syllabus included with the lengthy decision, the court stated, "The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives." 

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Justice Samuel Alito (Majority).

Click the link to read the entirety of this ruling: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf 

Local Laws

 SB 001/HB 001 (Johnson/Lamberth) - Signed by the governor 
Public Health - As introduced, prohibits a healthcare provider from performing on a minor or administering to a minor a medical if the performance or administration of the procedure is for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex. 

UPDATE: While a Tennessee District Court judge found the state's law banning transgender therapies like hormone blockers and surgeries for transgender youth unconstitutional because it discriminated based on sex, the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati granted an emergency appeal from Tennessee, which allowed this bill to go into effect. While this case is far from over with multiple parties bringing suit against the State of Tennessee regarding this bill, it is a win for the time being.  

***

SB 003/HB 003 (Johnson/Todd) - Signed by the Governor Obscenity and Pornography - As introduced, creates an offense for a person who engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult. 

 Update: A Tennessee Judge temporarily blocked this bill from going into effect citing constitutional protections for freedom of speech issuing a temporary restraining order.  

***

SB745/HB883 (Briggs/Helton - Hayes) - Was a caption bill that was dramatically re-written with an amendment. It alters the trigger law in a couple of ways:

1. It relies on a physician's good faith medical judgement, which brings up the concern that it will allow great latitude to an individual abortion - minded physician to do as he or she pleases, in the name of medical judgement. 
2. The second is that the amendment allows abortion in order to "prevent" a medical emergency that may or may not happen. This again allows a wide berth for "preventative" elective abortion without the presence of any maternal danger. 

UPDATE: Passed and Signed by the Governor  

***

Transportation Modernization Act - Governor's Infrastructure Bill - The proposal calls for choice lanes to be built through partnership with private companies, where drivers will pay to access them. Optional choice lanes allow drivers to access a more "reliable lane" with a "user fee" while still being able to use traditional highway lanes for free. 
This Proposal does NOT:

• Propose raising the gas tax or issuing road debt
• Spend a disproportionate amount of funds in urban areas, to the detriment of rural areas. 
• Reduce road and bridge maintenance budget
• Propose toll roads 

Currently, the state has about $26B in road and transportation projects, and the hope is that by partnering with private sector companies that would be responsible for building and maintaining these lanes, it frees up funds to address other transportation needs throughout the state.  

 UPDATE:  Passed