Thomas Dalton, Director, Arkansas Department of Human Services et al. v. Little Rock Family Planning Services et al. (516 U.S. 474)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 18, 1996 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 516 U.S. 474 · 116 S. Ct. 1063
- Decided
- March 18, 1996
- Term
- October Term 1995
- Vote
- 9–0
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. Respondents in this case are Medicaid providers and physicians who perform abortions in the State of Arkansas. In November 1993, they filed suit against petitioners, who are Arkansas state officials, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief with respect to Amendment 68 of the Arkansas Constitution, § 1 of which prohibits the use of state funds to pay for any abortion “except to save the mother’s life.” Their claim was that this provision is inconsistent with a requirement in Title XIX of the Social Security Act, 79 Stat. 348, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 1396 et seq., as affected by the 1994 version of the “Hyde Amendment,” that States fund medically necessary abortions where the pregnancy resulted from an act of rape or incest. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas granted summary judgment for respondents and enjoined Amendment 68; the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed. 60 F. 3d 497 (1995). Petitioners sought certiorari with respect to two aspects of the case: (1) the District Court’s holding that “[u]nder the Hyde Amendment. . . federal law requires Arkansas and other states that participate in the federal Medicaid program to pay for abortions in cases where pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, as well as abortions to save the mother’s life,” 860 F. Supp. 609, 612 (1994), and (2) the District…
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