OPINION OF INDIVIDUAL JUSTICE
IN CHAMBERS
on application for stay
No. A-124. Decided August 17, 1994
An application to stay the District Court's order is denied. That court enjoined applicants, Louisiana officials, from enforcing a state law prohibiting the use of public funds for abortion except when medically necessary to prevent the mother's death, finding that the law is inconsistent with what the court termed the requirement of Title XIX of the Social Security Act that States participating in the Medicaid program fund abortions for women whose fetuses were conceived by acts of rape or incest. The premise that Title XIX requires participating States to fund abortions unless federal funding for those procedures is proscribed by the Hyde Amendment has been uniformly supported by those Courts of Appeals that have addressed this question. It is certain that four Justices will not be found to vote for certiorari on this question until there is a Circuit conflict.
Justice Scalia, Circuit Justice.
Applicants, officers of the State of Louisiana, ask that I stay an order entered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana which enjoins them from enforcing La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 40:1299.34.5 (West 1992) while at the same time accepting federal Medicaid funds pursuant to Title XIX of the Social Security Act, as added, 79 Stat. 343, 42 U. S. C. § 1396 et seq. (1988 ed. and Supp. IV). The District Court stayed its judgment until 5 p.m. on August 19, 1994. Yesterday, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously denied the applicants' motion for stay pending appeal.
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