Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar again in the spotlight fighting the conservative Supreme Court on abortion
CNN
For the fourth time since she became the federal government’s top Supreme Court advocate, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar is arguing an abortion-related case.
For the fourth time since she became the federal government’s top Supreme Court advocate, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar is arguing an abortion-related case. The dispute before the high court on Wednesday, about whether federal mandates for hospitals override strict state abortion bans in medical emergencies, shows how legal fights over abortion rights did not cease when the conservative majority ended a constitutional right to an abortion in 2022. In the first two abortion-related cases Prelogar argued as the Justice Department’s fourth-ranking official, both heard during the Supreme Court’s 2021 term, the conservative majority rejected her calls that abortion rights be protected. But Prelogar has eked out wins on other issues where the Biden administration was seemingly at odds with the court’s conservative proclivities, including in tussles over immigration policy and voting rights. The administration’s supporters hope that in the two abortion cases before the Supreme Court this year, Prelogar can bring at least some of the conservative justices to the federal government’s side. Lawyers with experience arguing before the high court cite Prelogar’s skills in oral arguments, as well as her strategy of putting forward legal points that will attract the support of justices who are otherwise hostile to abortion as an issue – and doing so without undermining the larger arguments in favor of access to abortion. “She has a good understanding of why access to abortion here is important, as both a practical matter and the constitutional matter,” said Stephanie Toti, a reproductive rights attorney at The Lawyering Project who argued and won a significant abortion rights case at the Supreme Court in 2016. “But at the same time, she’s put her focus on the places where she’s likely to have the most leverage with the justices.”
Some Medicare enrollees may soon be able to access super-popular drugs for obesity under a voluntary model program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Tuesday. Eligible beneficiaries will only have to pay $50 a month.
The Justice Department’s leadership asked career prosecutors in Florida Tuesday to volunteer over the “next several days” to help to redact the Epstein files, in the latest internal Trump administrationpush toward releasing the hundreds of thousands of photos, internal memos and other evidence around the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The US State Department on Tuesday imposed visa sanctions on a former top European Union official and employees of organizations that combat disinformation for alleged censorship – sharply ratcheting up the Trump administration’s fight against European regulations that have impacted digital platforms, far-right politicians and Trump allies, including Elon Musk.
A Delaware state trooper was killed along with the suspected gunman Tuesday during a shooting at a motor vehicle agency near Wilmington, authorities said.
Wyoming’s lone U.S. representative is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Cynthia Lummis, who isn’t seeking re-election.
A new lawsuit filed in Washington, DC’s federal court Monday challenges the Kennedy Center board of trustees’ move to add President Donald Trump’s name to the cultural institution.
Warning: This post contains language readers may find disturbing.
Some staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs are finding little to be merry about after the agency said it would eliminate tens of thousands of open, unfilled positions across the country as it looks to streamline its staffing.
Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he’s been diagnosed with “metastasized, stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.”
CNN’s 5 Things AM brings you the news you need to know every morning.
Political opposites are closing 2025 as they did 2024: on each side of America’s Donald Trump divide. But CNN’s “All Over the Map” survey did provide several interesting takeaways. Some may be instructive about the midterm election climate, at least at this beginning stage.
A 2-year-old child is among at least five people who were killed when a Mexican Navy plane carrying medical patients crashed into the waters of Galveston Bay in Texas on Monday afternoon, US Coast Guard officials say.
The Trump administration is suing the local government of Washington, DC, over its gun laws, alleging that restrictions on certain semiautomatic weapons run afoul of Second Amendment rights.