The Supreme Court on Wednesday acknowledged that it inadvertently posted online a document related to a pending abortion case, which was obtained by Bloomberg Law before it was removed from the website.
Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe confirmed that a document was “inadvertently and briefly uploaded” to the court website, but added that the ruling “has not been released.”
NBC News has not seen a copy of the document and could not independently verify the document. It is not known if it was a draft decision, the actual decision or neither.
The court appears set to allow emergency room doctors in Idaho to perform abortions according to a copy of the decision, Bloomberg reported. The court is likely to dismiss the appeal brought by Idaho officials, Bloomberg said.
The case concerns whether a federal law that regulates emergency room treatment overrides Idaho’s strict abortion ban. But if the court dismisses the appeal, the decision would leave the legal question unresolved.
Idaho’s law says anyone who performs an abortion is subject to criminal penalties, including up to five years in prison. Health care professionals found to have violated the law can lose their professional licenses.
