Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

14. Department of Health and Human Services · Notable

Withdraw DOJ EMTALA enforcement lawsuits against pro-life states

Done

474 14. Department of Health and Human Services

“DOJ should agree to eliminate existing injunctions against pro-life states, withdraw its enforcement lawsuits, and in lawsuits against CMS on the guidance agree to injunctions against CMS and withdraw appeals of injunctions.”

What has happened

  1. Done

    The Ninth Circuit dismissed the appeals (Nos. 23-35440 and 23-35450) pursuant to the parties' stipulated agreement and directed that the order serve as its mandate (docket entry 183), ending the litigation and with it the preliminary injunction that had run against Idaho's law. Both acts the Quote names of DOJ - withdrawing the enforcement lawsuit and agreeing to eliminate the injunction against a pro-life state - are complete. The third clause, about lawsuits against CMS on the guidance, was already settled before the evidence window: the injunction against CMS in State of Texas v. Becerra, No. 5:22-cv-00185 (N.D. Tex.), was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit on 2024-02-26 and certiorari was denied on 2024-10-08, so there was no appeal left to withdraw.

  2. Partially done

    The United States filed a stipulation of dismissal without prejudice (docket entry 182) in United States v. State of Idaho, No. 1:22-cv-00329 (D. Idaho) - the only EMTALA abortion enforcement suit the Department of Justice had brought against a state. The docket was terminated 2025-03-06.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The CourtListener docket page refuses to open for automated requests. The docket entries themselves were read through CourtListener’s authenticated API, https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/docket-entries/?docket=64862956, which returned 192 entries; entries 182 (2025-03-05) and 183 (2025-03-13) are quoted in the notes above, and the docket’s own record gives a termination date of 2025-03-06.
  • State of Texas v. Becerra, No. 5:22-cv-00185 (N.D. Tex.), docket 63591571, read the same way: entry 115 (2024-02-26) is the Fifth Circuit opinion affirming the injunction against CMS and entry 117 (2024-10-08) records the Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari. Both predate the evidence window, so neither is cited as Evidence.
  • The guidance the litigation was about was rescinded on 2025-05-29; that is #1305.
Action
withdraw
Object
DOJ EMTALA enforcement lawsuits and injunctions
ID
1306