federal money for abortions. i have signed a letter that if they send any legislation to my desk that weakens the protection of human life, i will issue a veto. reporter: here at the supreme court, well wishes are poring in for ruth bader ginsburg, recovering from cancer surgery. briar and ginsburg are well into their 80s. a departure or retirement would move the cortisol solidly to the right. a federal appeals court has lifted a lower court ban that prohibited texas from eliminating planned parenthood from the state s medicaid program. they had accused planned parenthood of making a misrepresentation following the release of secretly recorded videos saying the group profited from the sale of fetal body parts. tomorrow s women s march
subject of books and movies, but also, she holds such a key position as the senior justice on the liberal wing of a very divided 5-4 court. if anything were to happen to her that would cause her to step down, president donald trump would get a third appointee so early in his tenure, and that could really tip the balance of this court. so progressives, women, all sorts of people who are her fans, but also people who care about the law in america, are watching to see what happens to her. you know, and ginsburg is known to be a real workaholic. she does not miss a beat. and even with all of this going on, she participated this week in a vote that upheld a lower court ban, striking down new restrictions on asylum seekers. and talk to us about her fortitude, why it is so important for her, to matter, you know, and to weigh in, no matter what.
and to stop refugee admissions worldwide. not just the six countries targeted with the travel ban, but refugees are stopped, except for the narrow carve out of people who have a connection already to the u.s. jon: the interesting thing is that the travel ban was proposed to take effect for only 90 days. we expect the white house will institute it as planned in the next few days, meeting the supreme court s criteria. but the supreme court is not expected to take up this case again until october. this is a temporary lifting of the lower court ban. i mean, by then, we could have brand-new immigration policy set by the white house. impact, the justices got at that issue. they said, hey, we almost expect we will not have to hear the case come october if the president follows through on the 90 day period and does the vetting and the new procedure that he talks about. the whole entire reason for the 90 day pause, we need may not be hearing it come october.
now. let s go to nbc news justice correspondent pete williams with more on that. hey, pete. good day to you. this involves the very controversial issue of research using human embryonic stem cells. last year a federal judge here in washington said the federal government could not use federal money to pay for research using embryonic stem cells and threatened to bring to a halt research that was going on in many clinics and universities around the country. it was considered a victory for opponents and a great defeat for people who think that embryonic stem cells hold promise for a cure for a number of diseases. a federal appeals court overturned that lower court ban by a vote of two to one. a panel lifted the injunction that blocked the federal government from spending any federal money to finance research using human embryonic stem cells. the panel said that the congressional language that the