Forty-two federal lawmakers and 15 states are urging a federal appeals court to declare Texas doesn’t have to pay Planned Parenthood affiliates to care for Medicaid beneficiaries (Planned Parenthood of Greater Tex. Family Planning & Preventative Health Servs., Inc. v. Smith, 5th Cir., No. 17-50282, briefs filed 8/14/17).

The republican members of Congress, including eight senators and 34 House members, Aug. 14 filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The brief urges the court to overturn a trial court decision that, they said, interpreted the Medicaid Act to override state officials’ decision that Planned Parenthood wasn’t a qualified Medicaid provider.

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Jonathan F. Mitchell, a visiting professor at Stanford Law School, Stanford, Calif., represents the lawmakers.

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