Document Type
Brief
Publication Date
12-2-2019
Abstract
Amici are constitutional law scholars who teach and write in the field of constitutional law, including as it relates to regulation of abortion, and who have a shared interest in identifying the proper standards of review. This brief sets forth Amici's considered understanding of the framework governing abortion regulation, as established by the decisions of this Court, and how to preserve the undue burden test as established in this Court's precedents over the last two decades. It also explains why the decision below, if permitted to stand, would threaten the uniformity and supremacy of federal law.
Louisiana's Act 620 requires abortion providers to have active admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where an abortion is provided. After Representative Katrina Jackson proposed Act 620 in Louisiana in 2014, an advocacy group sent Jackson an email praising the bill because of its similarity to H.B.2, an admitting privileges law in Texas that had "tremendous success in closing abortion clinics and restricting abortion access in Texas." J.A. 558, 585-86. That comment turned out to be foreshadowing. Ultimately, H.B.2's "success" was its undoing-by imposing admitting privilege requirements on abortion doctors and clinics that could not reasonably be met, H.B.2 resulted in approximately half of Texas's abortion clinics closing, leaving a substantial number of women seeking abortions with insufficient options for obtaining them. Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, 136 S. Ct. 2292 (2016). In 2016, this Court applied the precedent of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), and held that the admitting privileges requirement in H.B.2 unduly burdened women's right to an abortion and struck down the law as unconstitutional. 3 136 S. Ct. at 2318.
Recommended Citation
Litman, Leah, "June Medical Services L.L.C. v. Gee: Brief for Constitutional Law Scholars Ashutosh Bhagwat, Lee C. Bollinger, Erwin Chemerinsky, Michael C. Dorf, Daniel Farber, Joanna L. Grossman, Pamela S. Karlan, Leah Litman, Martha Minow, Jane S. Schacter, Suzanna Sherry, Geoffrey R. Stone, David A. Strauss, Laurence H. Tribe, and Mary Ziegler as Amici Curiae Supporting Petitioners" (2019). Appellate Briefs. 61.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/briefs/61
Included in
Constitutional Law Commons, Health Law and Policy Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons
Comments
Amicus: Bhagwat, Ashutosh; Bollinger, Lee C.; Chemerinsky, Erwin; Dorf, Michael C.; Farber, Daniel; Grossman, Joanna L.; Karlan, Pamela S.; Litman, Leah; Minow, Martha; Schacter, Jane S.; Sherry, Suzanna; Stone, Geoffrey R.; Strauss, David A.; Tribe, Laurence H.; Ziegler, Mary