Kentucky AG Cameron Files Brief with 21 States Asking US Supreme Court to Allow Tennessee to Enforce Abortion Waiting-Period Law

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron

Last week, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on behalf of a 21-state coalition. The brief asks the Supreme Court to allow Tennessee to enforce its abortion waiting-period law while it is being reviewed by a lower court.

After a District Court ruling blocked the Tennessee law, the Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals chose not to stay that verdict while hearing the case. As a result, Tennessee's waiting period law remains unenforceable.

“States have the sovereign authority to enact laws that promote life and protect the health and well-being of pregnant women,” said Attorney General Cameron. “We filed this brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Tennessee’s law to stand and to protect the right of each state to regulate abortion.”

The brief argues that the Sixth Circuit's decision to temporarily block enforcement of the law runs contrary to Supreme Court Precedent set by Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey 30 years ago. In that decision, the Supreme Court upheld a Pennsylvania abortion waiting period law. The attorneys general argue that continuing the block Tennessee's law calls that precedent into question and threatens waiting-period laws in other states.

Attorneys general from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia joined Cameron in the brief.

Click here to read the amicus brief.