Supreme Court of the United States

The respondents were an obstetrician/gynecologist and three reproductive health service clinics. They challenged a New Hampshire law that required minors to obtain parental consent before procuring an abortion. The challenge was on the grounds that the law did not provide an emergency health exception despite subjecting minors to significant health risks. The law only outlined an exception for the purpose of saving a minor’s life.

The plaintiff was a newspaper editor convicted under a Virginia law making it illegal for "any person, by publication, lecture, advertisement, or by the sale or circulation of any publication, or in any other manner, [from encouraging] or [prompting] the procuring of abortion or miscarriage." The plaintiff challenged the constitutionality of this law and argued that it violated rights protected by the First Amendment.

A federal statute established in 1873 prohibited the mailing of unsolicited pamphlets regarding contraceptives. Filing a friend-of-the-court brief, the ACLU challenged the constitutionality of this statute, alleging that it violated the First Amendment’s protection of commercial speech. Applying the test regarding commercial speech established in Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. v.

The ACLU filed a petition representing Kentucky abortion providers challenging the constitutionality of a state law banning physicians from providing abortions through dilation and evacuation (“D and E”) method. The Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit held that the ban unconstitutionally burdened the right to abortion. After the decision, Kentucky’s Attorney General moved to intervene, which the Sixth Circuit refused. The Supreme Court decided that the Attorney General should have been allowed to intervene as a non-party.

Castle Rock v. Gonzales is a U.S. Supreme Court case holding that a law enforcement officer could not be sued under 42 U.S. Code § 1983 for failing to enforce a restraining order. In the case, Jessica Gonzales was granted a restraining order against her husband during their divorce proceedings. In violation of the restraining order, the estranged husband took their three children, and despite repeated efforts by Jessica to have the order enforced, the police took no action.

A Massachusetts statute made it “a felony for anyone to give away a drug, medicine, instrument, or article for the prevention of conception except in the case of (1) a registered physician administering or prescribing it for a married person or (2) an active registered pharmacist furnishing it to a married person presenting a registered physician's prescription.” The plaintiff, who was found guilty of violating the statute, challenged its constitutionality, claiming it violated the 

In FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (2024), a group of anti-abortion medical organizations and doctors filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas challenging the FDA’s 2000 approval of the drug mifepristone and its later regulatory changes in 2016 and 2021, which expanded access to the drug.

The Attorney General challenged rulings by the Eighth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals striking down a federal law that imposed a ban on “partial abortions.” The Circuit Courts had held that the law was unconstitutional because it failed to provide an emergency health exception and subsequently endangered the lives of women seeking abortions.

The plaintiffs challenged an 1879 Connecticut law banning the use of all drugs, medical devices, or other instruments necessary for contraception, by opening a birth control clinic in New Haven, Connecticut.

The petitioners were a group of doctors, clinics, pregnant minors, and the mother of a pregnant minor. They challenged a Minnesota law that required minors seeking an abortion to notify and receive consent from both biological parents at least 48 hours before the procedure. Minors who were victims of parental abuse were instead required to give notice to the authorities and declare their abuse.