CLS attorney available for comment following hearing in right of conscience challenge
Oral arguments Friday on medical groups’ motion to intervene filed by ADF and CLS attorneysWHO: CLS-CLRF Litigation Counsel M. Casey Mattox
WHAT: Press conference after hearing in State of California v. United States of America
WHEN: Friday, May 19, immediately following hearing, which begins at 9:30 a.m. PDT
WHERE: James R. Browning U.S. Courthouse, 95 Seventh Street, San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO — An attorney with the Christian Legal Society will be available for comments to the media outside the Browning U.S. Courthouse immediately following Friday’s hearing in State of California v. United States of America, a federal lawsuit involving the conscience rights of pro-life physicians.
“California seeks to fine and criminally prosecute pro-life doctors because they refuse to perform abortions, and yet the district court said that more than 1,000 pro-life California doctors had no interest in this case,” said Litigation Counsel M. Casey Mattox of CLS’s Center for Law & Religious Freedom. “We hope the court of appeals will recognize the right of these healthcare professionals to defend themselves against California’s attack on their consciences.”
The appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit involves a motion to intervene filed by CLS and the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of members of the Christian Medical Association, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Fellowship of Christian Physicians Assistants in a case affecting their right to refuse to provide abortions and abortion referrals. The motion was denied by a lower court in November 2005 (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3626).
Mattox will be asking the court to allow the medical groups to enter the case as defendants in order to adequately protect their members’ interests by defending the constitutionality of the federal Weldon Amendment. Bill Lockyer, the attorney general of California, filed suit against the U.S. government in January 2005, claiming the amendment is unconstitutional. The statute forbids state and local governments that receive federal funds from discriminating against healthcare providers because they refuse to perform or refer patients for abortions.
Together, ADF, America’s largest legal alliance, and CLS, America’s premier membership organization of Christian legal professionals, defend religious liberty, human life, marriage, and the family.
