From Breitbart: A federal judge on Monday temporarily halted a provision in President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” blocking taxpayer dollars from going to Planned Parenthood through Medicaid.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, swiftly issued a Temporary Restraining Order on the same day Planned Parenthood filed its lawsuit, blocking the provision for 14 days and ordering the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) to “take all steps necessary to ensure that Medicaid funding continues to be disbursed” to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood alleges in its lawsuit that Congress targeted Planned Parenthood out of other abortion providers in how it wrote the provision, which bars Medicaid funding for one year. While the provision does not explicitly name Planned Parenthood, the organization is the only abortion provider that falls under the restrictions outlined in the bill.
Planned Parenthood also argued that having its Medicaid funding cut off would have “devastating effects” on the organization. Planned Parenthood has claimed that nearly 200 of its clinics are becoming “at risk of closure” because of the defunding measure.
ABOUT THIS JUDGE: Indira Talwani, 64, is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She was appointed by Barack Obama in September 2013, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 94-0 vote in May 2014. Born in New Jersey, she is the daughter of immigrants from India and Germany.
Monday evening, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) blasted out a statement condemning the ruling in a series of posts on X, as follows:
2. Given the lack of ambiguity in the statutory text, one can surmise that the TRO was likely predicated on an assertion that the statute is unconstitutional
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 8, 2025
4. If any part of the Constitution somehow prohibits Congress from withdrawing federal funding from an entity like Planned Parenthood, I’m not familiar with that provision
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 8, 2025
6. The complaint asserts that this provision of OBBA is a bill of attainder, but it’s quite clearly not, as it imposes no punishment. Denying federal funding to a type of entity—even one that long received federal funding—isn’t punishment, so this can’t be a bill of attainder.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 8, 2025
8. Finally, the complaint alleges that the statutory text defunding Planned Parenthood somehow violates the Equal Protection Clause. But the provision at issue doesn’t involve a suspect or quasi-suspect classification, and is therefore subject only to “rational basis” review,…
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 8, 2025
10. The Department of Justice (likely through the Solicitor General) should seek immediate review, perhaps by filing a petition for an extraordinary writ of mandamus, and get this TRO vitiated.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 8, 2025
12. Here’s the weird thing: the people who celebrate this type of judicial activism tend to align closely with those who condemn conservatives at every turn—accusing us of trying to destroy what they characterize as “our democracy.” (Our system of government is best characterized…
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 8, 2025
13. And yet what could be more undemocratic than trying to use the judicial system—without any legal or constitutional justification—to thwart the will of Americans voters who through their elected lawmakers chose *not* to continue funding Planned Parenthood?
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 8, 2025
Full story https://t.co/03zhVAunu5
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 8, 2025
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