Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-726_6jgm.pdf
Page Number: 5.0

4 

MOYLE v. UNITED STATES 

KAGAN, J., concurring 

After the Idaho Supreme Court construed the law, the Dis-
trict Court revisited its findings, and reaffirmed its entry of 
the injunction.  See 2023 WL 3284977, *1, *5 (May 4, 2023).
In line with standard practice, that decision now can go to
the Court of Appeals, and the District Court can afterward 
consider further evidence and arguments for the purpose of
final judgment.  Idaho is not entitled to anything more.  It 
mainly argues that EMTALA never requires a hospital to 
“offer medical treatments that violate state law,” even when 
they are needed to prevent substantial health harms.  Tr. 
of Oral Arg. 4.  In my view, that understanding of EMTALA 
is not “likely to succeed on the merits,” and so cannot sup-
port a stay of the injunction.  Nken v. Holder, 556 U. S. 418, 
434 (2009).  Neither does the State’s argument provide any 
basis for this Court to short-circuit the proceedings below.
Today’s ruling thus puts the case back where it belongs, and 
with the preliminary injunction in place. 

II
 JUSTICE  ALITO’s  dissenting  opinion  requires  a  brief  re-
sponse.  His primary argument is that although EMTALA 
generally obligates hospitals to provide emergency medical 
care, it never demands that they offer an abortion—no mat-
ter  how  much  that  procedure  is  needed  to  prevent  grave
physical harm, or even death.  See post, at 4–15.  That view 
has no basis in the statute. 

EMTALA  unambiguously  requires  that  a  Medicare-
funded hospital provide whatever medical treatment is nec-
essary to stabilize a health emergency—and an abortion, in
rare situations, is such a treatment.  The statutory obliga-
tion kicks in when an individual arrives at a hospital with
an  “emergency  medical  condition,”  which  is  one  involving 
serious jeopardy to health.  §1395dd(e)(1)(A).  The hospital
must then “stabilize” the condition.  §1395dd(b)(1)(A).  That 
means offering the medical treatment necessary to ensure 
that “no material deterioration of the condition” is likely to