On October 19, 2022, the Minnesota Attorney General lost a motion to end litigation over Minnesota’s abortion laws. An Order from the State of Minnesota Court of Appeals granted Traverse County’s County Attorney Matthew Franzese the right to appeal a previously denied request to intervene in a lawsuit pitting the state against an anonymous abortionist and a group of transgender activists. Franzese is represented by Thomas More Society attorneys in the attempt to uphold Minnesota’s existing abortion regulations.

Franzese’s motion to intervene in Dr. Jane Doe, et al. v. State of Minnesota, et al., was filed on August 19, 2022, following the filing of his Memorandum of Law in Support of Intervention on August 4. The motion to intervene was denied on September 6, in State of Minnesota District Court in Ramsey County. After the Attorney General refused to appeal the trial court’s decision striking down Minnesota’s informed consent, parental notice and 24-hour waiting period laws, Franzese appealed. Franzese’s appeal was filed with the appellate court on September 9. Then Minnesota’s Attorney General filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on the grounds the plaintiffs had already won—a legal doctrine called mootness. On October 19, 2022, the Court of Appeals denied that motion allowing Franzese’s appeal to continue.

Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal explained that the case, in which the court has ruled to overturn Minnesota’s abortion regulations at the behest of an anonymous abortionist, has drawn public criticism because of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s halfhearted defense of state law and his refusal to appeal the court’s decision.

“It’s wrong when a state’s attorney general does not defend the laws of the state,” Kaardal stated, “and that is what has happened here. It is really Orwellian. The Attorney General has an obligation to appeal the decision. He didn’t—and now he unsuccessfully tried to dismiss Franzese’s appeal. The Court of Appeals’ order yesterday was a rejection of the Attorney General’s motion to dismiss the appeal. Accordingly, we are thankful that the Minnesota Court of Appeals is going to give us a chance to work the important legal issues out in a formal way. That has always been how Minnesota courts have done it. And I assure the public that Minnesota will be better for it.”

Franzese’s filing, submitted on his behalf by the Thomas More Society, detailed how Franzese, as Traverse County’s County Attorney is responsible for enforcing the laws of the state, including the abortion laws challenged in the Ramsey County Court. The motion contends 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 the court in Ramsey County. The challenge to Minnesota’s protective oversight and regulation of abortion laws began on May 29, 2019, when the unidentified abortionist and another abortion worker, who has also concealed her identity, along with an abortion advocacy group and transgender proponents, sued the state over its laws designed to protect women.

Read the October 19, 2022, Order from the State of Minnesota Court of Appeals in Dr. Jane Doe, et al. v. State of Minnesota, et al., with Matthew Franzese, Appellant, here.