BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — La. Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry and La. Department of Health Secretary Courtney Phillips are asking the Louisiana Supreme Court to dissolve a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the state’s abortion trigger laws.
Landry’s request, which was filed on Saturday and can be read in its entirety at the bottom of this post, seeks to end the TRO three days before the issue is set to be discussed in court on July 8.
The so-called trigger laws went into effect after U.S. Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v. Wade in June, leaving the decision up to states on whether or not to ban abortions. On June 27, the Orleans Parish District Court agreed to a TRO on the state’s three trigger laws at the request of the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and June Medical Services, which operates an abortion clinic in Shreveport.
“The Louisiana Legislature has long awaited the reversal of Roe v. Wade,” states Landry’s request for a dismissal of the TRO. “That day has come, and it was met with improperly filed, procedurally defectively attempts to thwart legislative will … And, even more importantly, this Court should immediately halt these efforts to thwart the enforcement of validly-enacted State laws by flagrant judge-shopping and abuse of process.”
In the original request for the TRO, CRR called the trigger laws “unconstitutionally vague.”
“In a stunning state of affairs, the day [Roe v. Wade was overturned], state and local officials issued conflicting statements about whether and which trigger laws were actually in effect and thus what conduct—if any—was prohibited. Due process requires more.”
Landry refutes the CRR’s argument.
“But when one actually reads the prohibited conduct described in all three statutes, it is clear to people of ordinary intelligence what is being proscribed, which is enough to survive challenges regarding unconstitutional vagueness,” states Landry’s filing.