Legal challenge to abortion protections for workers tossed, Kansas sues Pfizer over COVID vaccine, and Justice Thomas casts cloud over diversity cases
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?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today's top legal news:
?? US states lose challenge to legal protections for workers who get abortions
U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall in Arkansas tossed out a legal challenge by 17 Republican-led states to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rule giving workers who had abortions the same legal protections as those who are pregnant or recently gave birth. Marshall said the states lacked standing to sue over?the rule because the agency was unlikely to enforce it against them.
The commission's rule implemented a law that Congress passed in 2022 with bipartisan support and the backing of major business groups, which requires most employers to accommodate workers who are pregnant or have related medical conditions.
Marshall in his decision said it was reasonable for the EEOC to include abortion as a related condition in the rule, and that the states' claim that the regulation would interfere with state bans on abortion was speculative.
More on abortion ...
?? Kansas accuses Pfizer of misleading public about COVID vaccine in lawsuit
Kansas sued Pfizer, accusing the company of misleading the public about its COVID vaccine by hiding risks and making false claims about its effectiveness, which the state said violated the Kansas Consumer Protection Act.
The lawsuit claims that, beginning shortly after the vaccine's rollout in early 2021, Pfizer concealed evidence that the shot was linked to pregnancy complications, including miscarriage, as well as inflammation in and around the heart, known as myocarditis and pericarditis.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2021 added a warning about myocarditis and pericarditis to the vaccine's label. The side effects are rare and most often occur in adolescent boys and young men.
"The representations made by Pfizer about its COVID-19 vaccine have been accurate and science-based," Pfizer said in a statement, adding that it believed the lawsuit had no merit.
?? Justice Clarence Thomas casts cloud over lawsuits challenging diversity programs
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has adopted a legal theory that would eliminate a spate of recent lawsuits filed by groups that share his opposition to race-based diversity programs.
In a concurring opinion in last week’s Supreme Court decision preserving access to the abortion pill mifepristone, Thomas questioned the constitutional foundation of a legal doctrine that allows groups to file lawsuits on behalf of their members.
But in his new concurrence, Thomas said the Supreme Court has never actually explained how such cases satisfy the constitutional requirement that plaintiffs must allege a concrete injury that can be addressed by the litigation.
“Associational standing,” he wrote, “seems to run roughshod over this traditional understanding of the judicial power.”
However, writes columnist Alison Frankel, Thomas’s newly-espoused skepticism about “associational standing” is likely, at the very least, to spark debate as lower courts consider lawsuits by anti-affirmative action groups.
??? Columbia Law appoints new dean with campus free speech experience
Columbia University named University of Chicago law professor Daniel Abebe as the next dean of its law school.
Abebe, who in addition to his law school teaching post has been vice provost for academic affairs and governance at the University of Chicago for the past six years, will replace Gillian Lester as dean of Columbia Law School on August 1, Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in an announcement.
Lester’s decade-long tenure as Columbia Law dean is ending amid a period of campus conflict over the war in Gaza. She announced her plan to step down in November, before protests on the Manhattan campus made national headlines, and is staying on the law school faculty.
?? That's all for today, thank you for reading?The Legal File, and have a great weekend!
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