By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services
Abortion rights advocates are urging Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to spur a bid by Attorney General Mark Brnovich to let Arizona immediately begin enforcing a new restriction on the procedure despite a federal judge’s ruling blocking the move.
In new court filings Tuesday, Jessica Sklarsky representing the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Kagan that there is no basis for the claim by the attorney general that Arizona will suffer “irreparable harm” if it cannot make it a crime to block doctors from performing abortions in cases where the woman’s reason is a fetal genetic defect. She pointed out that such procedures have been legal — and practiced — since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973.
Sklarsky also dismissed claims by Brnovich that a federal appeals court here would overrule a decision by a federal court in Phoenix enjoining enforcement of the law. She said the court found multiple problems that suggest the law is unconstitutional.
“It concluded that plaintiffs were likely to succeed both because the law imposes an undue burden in violation of substantive due process, and because its ill-defined and internally inconsistent prohibitions are unconstitutionally vague,” Sklarsky said.
Her pleadings are to Kagan because she handles emergency appeals from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which last month denied the request by Brnovich to immediately stay the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Rayes putting the law on hold. It is now up to Kagan to decide the issue herself or refer it to the full court.
There is no indication when any of that would occur.
