On July 14, 2020, the Minnesota Court of Appeals will hear the Thomas More Society’s appeal in a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by an anonymous abortionist against the state. The woman, whose identity is hidden under the moniker of “Dr. Jane Doe,” has teamed up with a transgender health care advocacy group to try and overturn Minnesota’s 24-hour waiting period for abortions, informed consent laws, parental notification standards, and a provision mandating that fetal remains be buried or cremated. The challenge also seeks to strike the requirement that all abortions be performed by a physician.

The Thomas More Society claims that the case could be easily dismissed if the Attorney General raised the affirmative defense that, absent legislative authorization, one can’t sue the government in Minnesota courts for violating the Minnesota Constitution; instead, one has to be ticketed or charged with a crime before raising constitutional issues.

“Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is volunteering the state to participate in what Pro-Life Action Ministries and the Association for Government Accountability have labeled ‘meritless litigation’,” stated Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal. “Two abortion workers who have concealed their identities and a church group that advocates abortion have joined forces with transgender proponents and the Attorney General in this attempt to strip away Minnesota’s legislative protective oversight by court-ordered regulation of abortion. This is something that the Minnesota constitution prohibits them from doing.”

WHAT: Oral arguments on the Thomas More Society Appellants’ Principal Brief in Dr. Jane Doe, et al., v. State of Minnesota, et al.

WHEN: Tuesday, July 14, 2020, at 11:10 a.m. (Central)

WHERE: The Minnesota Court of Appeals, 25 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, #305, St Paul, MN 55155, before Judge Diane B. Bratvold, Judge Jeanne M. Cochran, and Judge Randall J. Slieter (via teleconference)

WHO: Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal, representing Pro-Life Action Ministries, Incorporated, and the Association for Government Accountability

Kaardal explained the not-for-profit, national public interest law firm’s involvement: “Minnesota has laws on the books that are designed to protect women. The unidentified abortionist and her colleagues cannot sue the state in this matter, as dictated by Minnesota’s constitution, because the laws exist, and they have not been charged with violating those laws. Very simply, in Minnesota, if you do not like a law, you cannot sue to eliminate that law unless you have been charged with violating it. If that law has been used against you, then and only then do you have a private cause of action that entitles you to sue. While Minnesota’s attorney general represented the state in this lawsuit, his defense against this challenge was superficial, and did not utilize this obvious – and oft-practiced by his office – constitutional argument.”

Attorney General Ellison, a known abortion-rights supporter, has publicly committed to “defend the laws of the state of Minnesota,” without regard for his own personal opinions. Ellison implemented a “lack of standing” defense, which many viewed as a feeble attempt to uphold Minnesota’s regulation of abortion, rather than using the state’s constitution against the lawsuit. At that point, the Thomas More Society filed the Notice of Limited Intervention to Assert the Defense of Lack of Private Cause of Action on behalf of Pro-Life Action Ministries, Incorporated, and the Association for Government Accountability.

When the Second Judicial District Court of Minnesota in Ramsey County did not accept the Thomas More Society’s request to intervene, Kaardal filed the appeal.

Read the Appellants’ Principal Brief filed March 23, 2020, by the Thomas More Society on behalf of Pro-Life Action Ministries, Incorporated and the Association for Government Accountability at the State of Minnesota Court of Appeals, in Dr. Jane Doe, et al., v. State of Minnesota, et al., here.