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Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General of Tennessee, et al. v. Adams & Boyle, P.C., et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, No. 20-5408 · judgment April 24, 2020

GVR'd · January 25, 2021
Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

Only weeks after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Tennessee, the Governor issued an executive order requiring all healthcare providers to postpone elective and non-urgent surgical and invasive procedures for three weeks. The order aimed to slow community spread of the virus and conserve personal protective equipment for the medical professionals who were treating COVID-19 patients. In the decision below, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit upheld an injunction largely prohibiting the State from enforcing that executive order against abortion providers. The question presented is: Whether, pursuant to United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U.S. 36 (1950), this Court should vacate the Sixth Circuit’s judgment and remand with instructions to dismiss as moot the abortion providers’ constitutional challenge to the now-expired executive order.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Sarah Keeton Campbell
Office of the Tennessee Attorney General

For respondent
Autumn Chandra Katz
Center for Reproductive Rights

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage

Proceedings

  1. Feb 26 2021
    JUDGMENT ISSUED.
  2. Jan 25 2021
    Petition GRANTED. Judgment VACATED and case REMANDED to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit with instructions to direct the District Court to vacate as moot its April 17, 2020, order granting plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction. See United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U. S. 36 (1950).
  3. Jan 19 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/22/2021.
  4. Jan 11 2021
    Rescheduled.
  5. Dec 30 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/15/2021.
  6. Dec 23 2020
    Reply of petitioners Herbert H. Slatery III, et al. filed. (Distributed)
  7. Dec 14 2020
    Brief of respondents Adams & Boyle, P.C., et al. in opposition filed.
  8. Nov 12 2020
    Brief amicus curiae of American Center for Law and Justice filed.
  9. Oct 21 2020
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including December 14, 2020.
  10. Oct 20 2020
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from November 13, 2020 to December 14, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
  11. Oct 08 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 13, 2020)