As the United States Supreme Court prepares to review a challenge to Louisiana’s abortion regulations, former federal judge and United States Solicitor General Kenneth Starr has filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on behalf of the Thomas More Society in support of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

Andrew Bath, Thomas More Society Executive Vice President and General Counsel, said: “We are thrilled to have Judge Starr working with us on what is the most important abortion case the Supreme Court has agreed to hear in years. He is an attorney of the highest caliber and we appreciate being able to rely on his solid legal acumen.”

The Louisiana law requires that physicians performing abortions in the state have active admitting privileges at a local hospital. June Medical abortionists claim that this unduly burdens the rights of abortion-seeking women by limiting access.

Judge Starr and the Thomas More Society urged the Supreme Court to declare that Plaintiff June Medical Services L.L.C. does not have standing to sue to challenge the law on behalf of its patients.

Starr’s brief asserts that: “The injury at issue is the alleged undue burden on access to abortions, the right to which is held by third parties: June Medical’s patients. Petitioners lack third-party standing to assert the constitutional rights of others in this case because they lack a close relationship with the patients who would have first-party standing. In fact, June Medical has a conflict of interest with its patients, whom the restrictions were enacted to protect, with respect to the safety measures at issue.”

The Louisiana law was upheld last year by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans. Earlier this year the Supreme Court granted a temporary stay in the case, blocking the law from taking effect. In October, the high court announced that it would hear the case.

The Louisiana case will be the first abortion case to come before the Supreme Court since conservative justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch joined the bench.

“This is a very significant case that could result in an order prohibiting abortionists from filing lawsuits on behalf of their patients to challenge laws that are sensible safety regulations enacted to protect those very patients from the negligence and incompetence of the abortionists themselves,” noted Bath.

Read Kenneth Starr’s Brief of Amicus Curiae Thomas More Society Supporting Respondent-Cross-Petitioner, filed December 27, 2019, with the United States Supreme Court in June Medical Services L.L.C., et al. v. Rebekah Gee, Secretary, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, here.