BOISE, Idaho — Idaho's Attorney General Raúl Labrador is appealing a federal judge's Nov. 8 decisions, which temporarily blocked enforcement of Idaho's "abortion trafficking" law and denied the attorney general's immunity from the lawsuit.
Court documents filed within the past week show Labrador is appealing the judge's preliminary injunction and 11th Amendment immunity denial to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and asking the federal judge to stay, or lift, the injunction pending the appeal.
Within an 11-page memorandum in support of lifting that injunction, Labrador's attorneys argued under the 11th Amendment, he is immune from the lawsuit in federal court unless certain circumstances are met -- they said those circumstances have not been met.
Labrador's attorneys also argue that enforcing or prosecuting trafficking violators is the responsibility of elected county prosecutors, not the attorney general's.
The document continues and says the judge made a mistake in finding the plaintiffs could win the case based on their First and 14th Amendment rights. The "abortion trafficking" law bans conduct resulting in a pregnant minor getting an abortion, so his attorneys argue it's irrelevant for the court to find the law violates protected speech and expression.
The "abortion trafficking" law was first signed into law by Governor Brad Little on April 5, 2023, and is designed to prevent minors from getting abortions in states where the procedure is legal if they don't have their parent's permission. Under the law, people who help a minor who isn't their child arrange an out-of-state abortion can be charged with a felony.
Plaintiffs Lourdes Matsumoto, Northwest Abortion Access Fund and Indigenous Idaho Alliance filed a lawsuit against Labrador in his capacity as the AG for the State of Idaho in U.S. District Court on July 11, 2023.
Labrador's office sent KTVB a statement on Tuesday that reads:
"Idaho's commonsense laws continue to be attacked by radical groups opposed to our state's values," Labrador's office told KTVB in an email. "A federal judge ruled that the First Amendment's right to free speech means that Idaho cannot criminalize abortion trafficking. But there is an important distinction between speech and conduct under the First Amendment, and Idaho's law properly criminalizes conduct. We have immediately appealed the judge's erroneous decision and will keep aggressively defending Idaho law against federal overreach."
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