In a rapidly evolving healthtech landscape, keep up with the news that matters.
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Like healthtech itself, the laws governing healthtech move fast.
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Recent and Ongoing Supreme Court Cases
What does the Supreme Court have to do with my healthtech?
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest law of the land. When some cases that relevant to constitutional law are appealed and judges in the lower courts cannot agree on the application of laws to a specific case, they go to the SCOTUS. Using a power called judicial review, the ruling of nine Supreme Court justices has a very important role in forming the basis of American law, because the decision that they make goes on to become the law nation-wide.
When the SCOTUS hears cases about healthcare law and digital data privacy rights, it affects everyone, not just the parties involved in the case itself. Thus, understanding the past, present, and future of constitutional law relating to healthcare and/or data is an important part of understanding why the privacy practices of your healthtech matters.
Moyle v. United States (2024)
What’s the case about?
The Court decide whether the EMTALA, a federal law requiring emergency rooms to provide “necessary stabilizing treatment,” overrides a recent Idaho law imposing a near-total abortion ban that would criminalize both recipients and providers of abortion in the state.
Why does it matter?
Moyle was the first case that the Supreme Court hears about a state law criminalizing abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. While not directly related to data privacy in healthcare, this decision affects the twenty-one states that have enacted abortion bans or restrictions, with implications on the extent to which health data such as that stored on period-tracking apps could be used as evidence in criminal abortion trials, even when the reproductive healthcare procedure constitutes an emergency.
What happened?
In their June 2024 decision to dismiss the case, the Supreme Court declared that it had been “improvidently granted,” which means that the majority of the justices changed their minds about whether the case needed to be taken up now. So, while we await their decision on the case itself, Americans in Idaho will be able to receive abortions when their health is at risk.