Supreme Court stays out of lawsuit on Planned Parenthood contract
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Version 0 of 1. The Supreme Court turned aside an antiabortion organization’s attempt Monday to get more information about a Planned Parenthood contract with the federal government. The court said it would not review an appeals court decision that said the Freedom of Information Act did not allow New Hampshire Right to Life access to Planned Parenthood’s Manual of Medical Standards and Guidelines. The document was submitted as part of a $1 million contract with the government. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston said the document was covered by an exception to the Freedom of Information Act that withholds “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person [and that is] privileged or confidential.” Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia said they would have accepted the case. But despite the controversy in Congress surrounding Planned Parenthood’s abortion services, the justices did not mention the procedure in discussing the case. Instead, Thomas wrote that the court should accept the case because it has never clarified what the FOIA exception covers. Lower courts, he said, “have embraced varying versions of a convoluted test that rests on judicial speculation about whether disclosure will cause competitive harm to the entity from which the information was obtained.” He said the Supreme Court should provide more direction. The case is New Hampshire Right to Life v. Department of Health and Human Services. |