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Dec 11, 2021Liked by James J. Heaney

“They sued the attorney general, they sued a random state-court judge … they sued a random state-court clerk, they sued a private pro-life guy named Mr. Dickson … and they sued a bunch of officials involved in state medical licensing. ”

So what happened to the rest of these lawsuits? Based on the rest of the article I assume the eponymous ‘Jackson’ was the one of the bunch involved with state medical licensing? Could this case have been “Women’s Health v. Various”? Or was there a reason only Jackson survived the melee to be the sole case heard? Or was it just spin-the-wheel style luck and they had to pick one and only one to officially be heard?

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It's all one giant case! Official Supreme Court case titles are often very much abbreviated compared to the full list of parties.

The ACTUAL name of this case, if all parties were included, would be:

Whole Woman’s Health; Alamo City Surgery Center, P.L.L.C. d/b/a Alamo Women’s Reproductive Services; Brookside Women’s Medical Center, P.A. d/b/a Brookside Women’s Health Center and Austin Women’s Health Center; Houston Women’s Clinic; Houston Women’s Reproductive Services; Planned Parenthood Center for Choice; Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas Surgical Health Services; Planned Parenthood South Texas Surgical Center; Southwestern Women’s Surgery Center; Whole Woman’s Health Alliance; Allison Gilbert, M.D.; Bhavik Kumar, M.D.; The Afiya Center; Frontera Fund; Fund Texas Choice; Jane’s Due Process; Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity; North Texas Equal Access Fund; Reverend Erika Forbes; Reverend Daniel Kanter; and Marva Sadler

VERSUS

Judge Austin Reeve Jackson, in his official capacity as Judge of the 114th District Court; Penny Clarkston, in her official capacity as Clerk for the District Court of Smith County; Mark Lee Dickson; Stephen Brint Carlton, in his official capacity as Executive Director of the Texas Medical Board; Katherine A. Thomas, in her official capacity as Executive Director of the Texas Board of Nursing; Cecile Erwin Young, in her official capacity as Executive Commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission; Allison Vordenbaumen Benz, in her official capacity as Executive Director of the Texas Board of Pharmacy; and Ken Paxton, in his official capacity as Attorney General of Texas (2021)

Since this would be quite a mouthful, the usual rule is to just grab the first two names and stick 'em in as a title.

As a result of the Supreme Court's decision here, Judge Jackson has been released from the case. My assumption is that, going forward, the case will become known as Whole Women's Health v. Carlton (after Stephen Carlton, the first-listed licensing official), but I'm not 100% sure how this works on remand.

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