WHO: ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence and CLS Chief Litigation Counsel Steven H. Aden
WHAT: Press conference after hearing in
Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood and
Gonzales v. Carhart
WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 8, following hearing, which begins at 10 a.m. EST
WHERE: At the front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, near the fountain
WASHINGTON — Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence and Christian Legal Society Chief Litigation Counsel Steven H. Aden will be available to take questions from the media immediately following Wednesday’s oral arguments in
Gonzales v. Carhart and
Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America. ADF and the CLS filed friend-of-the-court briefs in both cases urging the justices to uphold the constitutionality of the federal ban on partial-birth abortion.
“There’s a reason the majority of Americans, including the U.S. Congress, want this practice banned: it is inhumane, hideous, and unnecessary. The Supreme Court has an opportunity with these two cases to defer to the legislative branch’s decision on the public policy of abortion,” said Lorence. “The high court should not have intruded into this area of partial-birth abortion with its
Stenberg decision in 2000, and now the court has an opportunity to correct its error.”
In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Nebraska’s ban on partial-birth abortion in
Stenberg v. Carhart, saying the language in the ban was too vague. Congress then passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003, having clarified the language to remedy the Supreme Court’s earlier concerns in
Stenberg. A copy of the friend-of-the-court brief filed by ADF and CLS in
Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America on behalf of themselves and the National Association of Evangelicals, Pro-Life Legal Defense Fund, and Concerned Women for America can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/GonzalesvPlannedParenthoodAmicus.pdf. A copy of the friend-of-the court brief filed in
Gonzales v. Carhart on behalf of the same organizations and the Christian Medical Association can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/GonzalesAmicus.pdf.
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.
www.telladf.org www.clsnet.org