Whether Indiana's laws prohibiting standard medical disposition of embryonic tissue from lawful abortion procedures violate the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses

QUESTION PRESENTED The Doe Plaintiffs believe as a matter of religious and moral conviction that an embryo should not be treated like a person and that the embryonic tissue from their lawful abortion procedures should be disposed of according to standard medical protocols. But Indiana law prohibits standard medical disposition of such tissue, instead requiring abortion patients to consent to its burial or cremation or to dispose of it on their own, outside the healthcare system. After the district court held that the challenged laws violate the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses, the Seventh Circuit summarily reversed, without affording Plaintiffs the opportunity to file a merits brief and without applying the First Amendment standards set forth in this Court’s precedents to the facts of the case. The question presented is: Whether, following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022), this Court’s First Amendment precedents continue to apply to free exercise and free speech claims concerning abortion-related activities and expression.