Earlier this month, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted to vacate the 3-judge panel's decision in
State of California v. Azar, and to grant
en banc review of whether the Trump Administration's new regulations on family planning grants may go into effect. The new rules bar recipients of family planning grants under Title X from referring clients for abortions. They also ban clinics that receive Title X funds from sharing office space with abortion providers. Three district courts had enjoined implementation of the new rules, but a 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit had granted a stay of the injunctions, allowing the new rules to go into effect. (See
prior posting.) While it was widely reported that the court's action earlier this month granting
en banc review had reinstated the district court injunctions, apparently that was not so because a week later in
State of California v. Azar, (9th Cir., July 11, 2019), the
en banc court, in a 7-4 opinion, said:
Pursuant to prior order of the Court upon granting reconsideration en banc, the three-judge panel Order on Motions for Stay Pending Appeal in these cases was ordered not be cited as precedent by or to any court of the Ninth Circuit. However, the order granting reconsideration en banc did not vacate the stay order itself, so it remains in effect. Thus, the motions for administrative stay remain pending and were not mooted by the grant of reconsideration en banc.
After due consideration of the emergency motions, the motions for administrative stay of the three-judge panel order are DENIED.
Liberty Counsel,
reporting on the decision, says that the new Title X rules will block $50 to $60 million in grants to Planned Parenthood that would have been used for birth control, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and cancer screenings.
