New York
Sotomayor denies NYPD detective’s plea to block vax mandate
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Monday denied an appeal from a New York Police Department detective who asked for an emergency injunction to keep the city from firing him over its mandate that municipal employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Detective Anthony Marciano has a lawsuit pending against the city in a federal appeals court, and his attorneys last week had petitioned Sotomayor, who oversees emergency appeals from New York and some other states, for the injunction while the case is being resolved.
Marciano is part of a small group of employees who didn’t qualify for a medical or religious exemption to getting the shot, but still refused.
There have been more than 1,000 New York City employees fired for refusing the vaccines, and some requests for exemptions have yet to be decided.
Legal challenges to the rules have mostly been unsuccessful.
The city’s law department said it was happy with the ruling. Marciano’s attorney, Patricia Finn, said she would ask the entire Supreme Court for a review.
Colorado
Forced medication considered for clinic shooting suspect
DENVER (AP) — A federal judge is holding a hearing Tuesday to determine if a mentally ill man charged with killing three people and wounding eight others at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in 2015 should be forcibly medicated so he can be put on trial.
Robert Dear’s prosecution in state court and then federal court for the attack on the clinic in Colorado Springs has been stalled because he has been repeatedly found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial after being diagnosed with delusional disorder. He has refused to take antipsychotic medication according to federal prosecutors who are asking U.S. District Judge Robert E. Blackburn to order that Dear be given medication against his will.
In a court filing, prosecutors said they expected Dear’s lawyers to argue that serious medical problems prevent him from being treated with antipsychotic medication. According to prison medical records, Dear has reported that he suffered a heart attack while taking such a drug years ago but prosecutors said they could not find any record to back that up, according to a prosecution filing.
Dear, described by acquaintances at the time of his arrest as a reclusive loner, is being represented by federal public defenders who do not comment to the media on their cases.
During outbursts in court, Dear has declared himself a “warrior of the babies” and said he was guilty. When Blackburn declared that he was incompetent to stand trial in September 2021, Dear objected, shouting “I’m not crazy,” The Denver Post reported.
Dear told police he attacked the clinic because he was upset with Planned Parenthood for “the selling of baby parts,” according to state court documents.
Federal prosecutors allege that Dear intended to wage “war” against the clinic because it offered abortion services, arming himself with four semi-automatic SKS rifles, five handguns, two other rifles, a shotgun, propane tanks and 500 rounds of ammunition. He allegedly began shooting outside the clinic before getting inside by shooting his way through a door, according to his federal indictment.
Two of the people killed in the attack were accompanying friends to the clinic — Ke’Arre Stewart, 29, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and was a father of two, and Jennifer Markovsky, 36, a mother of two who grew up in Oahu, Hawaii. The third person killed was University of Colorado Colorado Springs campus police officer Garrett Swasey, who responded to the clinic after hearing there was an active shooter.
Prosecutors have ruled out seeking the death penalty against Dear, who is charged under the federal 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, and instead will seek a life sentence if he is convicted.
It’s not known when Blackburn will rule on whether he should be forcibly medicated.
Texas
Religious health care providers beat ACA restriction appeal
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (AP) — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a Texas federal court ruling that exempts a group of religious health care providers from the abortion and gender rights requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
In an 18-page opinion filed Friday, the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld the permanent injunction by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Wichita Falls.
The Franciscan Alliance, a Catholic hospital network in Indiana and Illinois, and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations and their 19,000 members nationwide sued to block the Biden administration from enforcing ACA provisions they feared would require them to perform abortions or gender-transition treatment.
In his ruling last August, O’Connor interpreted regulations of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as forcing the plaintiffs to choose between their beliefs and their livelihood, resulting in “irreparable injury.”
The 5th Circuit ruling came in an HHS appeal of the O’Connor injunction and applied only to the plaintiffs in the case. However, the plaintiffs hailed the decision as protection for health care professionals nationwide.
“This victory in Texas against government coercion means healthcare professionals can continue to exercise medical judgment and ethical care based upon sound medical evidence and Hippocratic standards of patient care instead of any ideology,” said Dr. Mike Chupp, chief executive of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations.
A message to the Justice Department, which represented HHS in its appeal, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
