The County Attorney of Traverse County, Minnesota, is stepping up to do the job that the state’s attorney general refuses to do. On August 4, 2022, Thomas More Society attorneys filed a Motion to Intervene in Ramsey County District Court, on behalf of Traverse County’s County Attorney Matthew Franzese.

Franzese is stepping up and petitioning to intervene in a lawsuit brought by an anonymous abortionist against the state, because Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison refuses to do his job, despite his legal obligation to defend Minnesota law and its codified abortion restrictions.

On July 11, 2022, Ramsey County Judge Thomas Gilligan overturned Minnesota’s abortion regulations, including a mandatory 24-hour waiting period, a requirement that both parents be notified before a minor can get an abortion, and the law dictating that only physicians can perform abortions.

Ellison announced on July 28, 2022, that he will not appeal that ruling, claiming that his decision is, “in the public interest.”

Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal explained: “Ellison, a known supporter of abortion, has allowed an abortionist, and another abortion worker – both of whom have who have concealed their identity – along with an abortion advocacy group and transgender proponents, to attempt to strip away Minnesota’s protective oversight and eliminate any regulation of abortion. This is something that the Minnesota constitution prohibits them from doing. And Ellison has chosen to allow them to do this without mounting a reasonable defense. Ellison has publicly committed to ‘defend the laws of the state of Minnesota,’ without regard for his own personal opinions. And now, in an unconscionable move, the Minnesota Attorney General is refusing to appeal a decision that strikes down laws enacted by the legislature as the will of the people.”

Franzese points out that as the state’s top law enforcement officer, Ellison’s refusal to defend Minnesota law has allowed confusion regarding Franzese’s own obligation as the County Attorney of Traverse County to enforce state law in his own county.

The Motion to Intervene notes that the Ramsey County District Court’s decision of July 11, 2022, is, “merely the law of this case” and has “no precedential value beyond Ramsey County.”

Franzese’s filing details how he, as Traverse County’s County Attorney is responsible to enforce laws of the state, including the abortion laws challenged in the Ramsey County District Court. The motion reasons that Ellison’s refusal to appeal a Ramsey County Court decision has no bearing in Traverse County, where the County Attorney can still prosecute in his county the same laws held unconstitutional by Gilligan in Ramsey County.

Kaardal added: “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 often used by his office – constitutional argument.”

Read the Memorandum of Law in Support of Intervention, filed August 4, 2022, along with a Notice of Motion and Motion, by Thomas More Society attorneys on behalf of Matthew Franzese, in his official capacity as Traverse County Attorney at the State of Minnesota District Court – County of Ramsey, in Dr. Jane Doe, et al., v. State of Minnesota, et al., here.