Wednesday, July 27, 2022

And the Trigger Law is Stayed.

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: Lawsuit filed over Wyoming's abo...: Lex Anteinternet: Lawsuit filed over Wyoming's abortion restriction ... : Lex Anteinternet: The Governor Certifies the Trigger Law on Ab...

And Judge Owens of the Ninth Judicial District enjoined the State from enforcing the new law in an interlocutory (i.e., temporary) order.

I have the odd experience here of actually knowing, to some degree, the lawyers who argued for the State and at least one of the Plaintiffs. 

The arguments apparently did feature the topic of what is healthcare, with it being noted by the Judge that the new statute is silent as to that, but a predecessor statute was not, and therefore an ambiguity arose in her view.  

Some peculiar arguments were apparently made to the Court, I'd note, but the extent to which they figured in the Court's decision is unclear.  One party argued that the fact a party seeking an abortion might have to travel was apparently argued to raise constitutional issues, but it frankly isn't clear how that would be true.  A Jewish plaintiff argued that the statute infringed on her religious rights as Judaism, she said, permits abortion (I'm not sure if that's actually universally true) and, according to her, in some instances requires it.  On that latter point, I didn't hear it developed as an argument, but at least generally, I highly doubt that's true.

My guess is that from here the issue will be certified to the Wyoming Supreme Court, as there's really no reason for it to linger in the district court.  The Wyoming Supreme Court will accordingly have to determine the issues raised, and that will necessarily take months.

My guess is, FWIW, that the decision at the high court will not be a unanimous one.  I'll predict at least one vote holding the law is unconstitutional due to the Wyoming constitutional provision noted.  I suspect that at least two votes will be there to uphold it.  How the rest of the five-person panel comes out I'm not sure of.

In the meantime, Judge Owens is going to be accused of partisanship, etc., as every judge who rules on this issue in any fashion ends up being.  It's probably fortunate for her that the recent Republican appointed judge is located in Teton County, as this could easily end up costing her the bench in some others when retention time comes up.

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