SCOTUS may hear N.Y. abortion regulation case, CapCon Q&A on the LCA show

Plus: an update on Hochul's agency nominees, and more.

Good afternoon — it’s Tuesday and Memo Day.

TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2024

TODAY’S CAPCON:

• The U.S. Supreme Court could hear a case on a New York regulation tied to abortion.

• Republicans want to change some things about the state’s highest court.

• Aid in Dying advocates interrupted Tuesday’s Assembly session from the gallery and were quickly arrested.

• The Senate advanced two of Hochul’s agency nominees Tuesday. Another is coming Wednesday.

• A preview of the LCA show, which is Wednesday evening.

🔨 Is Tomorrow a Session Day? Yes.

🌞 Tonight’s Weather: Albany: Partly cloudy, high 60s. New York City: Mostly clear, mid-60s. (National Weather Service)

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Chief Judge Rowan Wilson (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)

⚖️ N.Y.’s top court upholds Cuomo-era abortion regulation; diocese to seek SCOTUS review

🧑‍⚖️ Hochul labeled the plaintiffs in the case — which include several religious groups — as “right-wing extremists.”

Back in 2017, you might remember that Maria Vullo, then-commissioner of the state Department of Financial Services, announced a regulation on health coverage for medically necessary abortions.

• The regulation requires insurance companies in New York to include that coverage.

• As a result, group health insurance plans offered by employers to their workers have to include that coverage.

A coalition of religious groups — led by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany — sued the state to strike down that regulation, arguing that it violated their rights under the First Amendment.

The regulation did include an exemption from the requirement for certain religious entities. 

• Those include employers whose purpose is to promote their religious values, employ people who share their religious tenets, primarily serve people who share those beliefs, or qualify under federal regulations as a religious nonprofit.

But the religious groups argued that the exemption was too narrow and could exclude some groups that associate their activities with religion.

Chief Judge Rowan WILSON rejected that argument Tuesday and upheld the regulation in an opinion signed onto unanimously by the court’s six other judges.

“We decline to engage in a searching analysis as to whether the factors used in the ‘religious employer’ definition are the most careful and narrowly tailored as can be envisioned, as that would effectively incorporate strict scrutiny through the back door,” Wilson wrote.

But that may not be the end of the litigation.