UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

On petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.

Mr. Justice WHITE, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE joins, dissenting.

This case presents the question whether a private hospital largely funded by the state and federal govern-

Page 423 U.S. 1000 , 1001

ments, partly controlled by the state government and the policymaking body of which is chosen by members of the community may, consistent with the Constitution, refuse to perform elective abortions. In unanimously answering the question in the affirmative, different members of the court below employed two distinct lines of analysis each of which squarely conflicts with the rule of law existing in other circuits. The question is important, the conflict is clear, and this Court has a responsibility to resolve it.

Petitioner is a doctor who had staff privileges at the respondent hospital at times relevant to this lawsuit. [Footnote 1] The hospital had been built by the Orange County, Tex., government with local government money and with federal money obtained by Orange County under the Hill-Burton Act. 42 U.S.C. 291e-291f. The hospital and the land under it were owned by Orange County. However, in 1957, Orange County leased the hospital and the land under it for $1.00 per year to the respondent, Orange County Memorial Hospital Corp. (the Corporation), a nonprofit tax-exempt corporation. Under the lease the Corporation agreed: (1) to operate the hospital as a nonprofit institution and to furnish to the general public medical and surgical care subject to such terms and regulations as the Corporation might prescribe; (2) to carry out the assurances required to the County in order to obtain federal funds and to relinquish possession of the hospital in the event it failed adequately to comply; (3) to have all equipment and [423 U.S. 1000 , 1002]

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