Florida Supreme Court declines to temporarily stop 15-week abortion law

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court on Monday rejected requests to halt a law that stops abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

Justices, in a 4-1 choice, turned down a movement by seven abortion clinics and a health care provider for a keep of a ruling by the first District Court of Appeal that stored the law in place. The one-paragraph choice didn’t element the Supreme Court’s reasoning.

At a minimal, the choice will maintain the law in impact till the Supreme Court can rule on underlying points within the case. Justices Charles Canady, Ricky Polston, John Couriel and Jamie Grosshans had been within the majority, whereas Justice Jorge Labarga wrote a brief dissent.

“In view of this (Supreme) Court’s longstanding precedent, I conclude that the petitioners have met the exacting burden required for this Court to stay the First District Court of Appeal’s decision pending review in this Court,” Labarga wrote.

Chief Justice Carlos Muniz and Justice Renatha Francis didn’t participate.

The majority’s choice didn’t straight handle a serious query within the case: whether or not the Supreme Court will reverse many years of authorized precedent that has mentioned a privateness clause within the state Constitution protects abortion rights.

The choice and an identical 4-1 ruling Monday on one other difficulty involving a keep took place 5 months after the first District Court of Appeal tossed out a temporary injunction issued by Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper, who mentioned the 15-week restrict violated the privateness clause within the Constitution.

The appeals courtroom dominated the plaintiffs couldn’t present “irreparable harm” from the 15-week restrict, which lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis accredited final 12 months amid a nationwide debate about abortion rights.

The plaintiffs rapidly took the case to the Supreme Court and requested for a keep of the appeals courtroom ruling to stop the law from being in impact whereas the authorized battle continued. Earlier, the plaintiffs had requested the Supreme Court to vacate an automated keep that had been imposed on Cooper’s ruling after it went to the appeals courtroom. The different 4-1 choice Monday rejected that request.

The clinics and doctor Shelly Hsiao-Ying Tien filed the lawsuit June 1, and Cooper issued the short-term injunction July 5. The state instantly appealed, which, underneath authorized guidelines, positioned the automated keep on Cooper’s ruling — conserving the 15-week restrict in impact.

The appeals courtroom refused to elevate the automated keep and subsequently rejected Cooper’s short-term injunction.

In their Aug. 31 movement for a keep filed on the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs contended that the first District Court of Appeal had not adopted precedents.

“Granting plaintiffs’ requests to stay the First DCA’s decision and allow the injunction to take effect would restore the status quo while litigation continues and allow Floridians to resume exercise of their constitutional right to decide whether to carry a pregnancy to term or obtain a pre-viability abortion — a right that this (Supreme) Court has repeatedly recognized is encompassed by the Florida Constitution’s right of privacy,” mentioned the transient, filed by attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the nationwide law agency of Jenner & Block.

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But in September, Attorney General Ashley Moody’s workplace urged the Supreme Court to reject the movement for a keep — and to go additional by discovering that the privateness clause doesn’t apply to abortion rights.

“Florida’s Privacy Clause creates a right ‘to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life,’” legal professionals in Moody’s workplace wrote in a single submitting. “That language is naturally read to limit governmental snooping and information-gathering — but not to establish a liberty to destroy unborn (or any other) life.”

If the Supreme Court finally goes together with Moody’s arguments, it might clear the way in which for DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature to place extra restrictions on abortions. The courtroom has turn out to be dominated by conservative justices since DeSantis took workplace in 2019, a minimum of partly due to the retirements of three longtime justices, Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince, who helped make up a more-liberal majority.

Monday’s selections got here a day after Vice President Kamala Harris made an appearance in Tallahassee to help abortion rights on the fiftieth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade choice. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade final 12 months, leaving abortion selections up to states.

By Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida