Harris v. McRae

SCOTUSCase
Litigants=Harris v. McRae
ArgueDate=April 21
ArgueYear=1980
DecideDate=June 30
DecideYear=1980
FullName=Harris, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Cora McRae, et al.
USVol=448
USPage=297
Citation=100 S. Ct. 2671; 65 L. Ed. 2d 784; 1980 U.S. LEXIS 145
Prior=McRae v. Califano, 491 F. Supp. 630 (E.D.N.Y. 1980)
Subsequent=Petition for rehearing denied September 17, 1981
Holding=States that participated in Medicaid were not required to fund medically necessary abortions for which federal reimbursement was unavailable as a result of the Hyde Amendment. The funding restrictions of the Hyde Amendment did not violate either the Fifth Amendment or the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
SCOTUS=1975-1981
Majority=Stewart
JoinMajority=Burger, White, Powell, Rehnquist
Concurrence=White
Dissent=Brennan
JoinDissent=Marshall, Blackmun
Dissent2=Marshall
Dissent3=Blackmun
Dissent4=Stevens
LawsApplied=

"Harris v. McRae", 448 U.S. 297 (1980), [ [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=448&page=297 448 U.S. 297] Full text of the opinion courtesy of Findlaw.com.] was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that States that participated in Medicaid were not required to fund medically necessary abortions for which federal reimbursement was unavailable as a result of the Hyde Amendment, which restricted the use of federal funds for abortion. The Court also held that the funding restrictions of the Hyde Amendment did not violate either the Fifth Amendment or the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Background

In 1965 Congress amended Title XIX of the Social Security Act to create the Medicaid program. Medicaid is a voluntary program which provides federal funds to those states that choose to provide reimbursement for certain medical expenses for the indigent. [448 U.S. at 301]

In September, 1976, Congress began, either by amendment to the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare or by joint resolution, to ban the use of federal funds to reimburse the cost of abortions under Medicaid. [448 U.S. at 302] Initially, the only exception was where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term. These restrictions became known as the Hyde Amendment, named for the measure's original sponsor, Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde. The language of the 1980 Hyde Amendment provided,

In 1976, following passage of the original Hyde Amendment, an action was brought in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York seeking to injoin enforcement of the Amendment's restrictions. [McRae v. Mathews, 421 F. Supp. 533 (E.D.N.Y. 1976)] Plaintiffs were Cora McRae, a New York Medicaid recipient then in the first trimester of a pregnancy that she wished to abort, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., which operated hospitals providing abortion services, officers of the Women's Division of the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, and the Women's Division itself. [448 U.S. at 303] McRae sought to bring the action as a class action, on behalf of other similarly situated women. [448 U.S. at 303] The district court granted the class certification motion, and also permitted Senators James Buckley and Jesse Helms and Congressman Hyde to intervene as defendants. [448 U.S. at 303]

The district court granted the injunction on January 15, 1980, finding that the Hyde Amendments violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process clause and the First Amendment's Establishment clause. [McRae v. Califano, 491 F. Supp. 630]

upreme Court decision

Justice Stewart delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Burger, Justice White, Justice Powell, and Justice Rehnquist joined. Justice White wrote an opinion concurring the judgment. Justice Brennan wrote a dissent, in which Justice Marshall and Justice Blackmun joined. Justice Marshall and Justice Blackmun also authored separate dissents, as did Justice Stevens.

ee also

*List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 448

References