Abortion, campus sexual assault, Second Amendment: 5 notable Amy Coney Barrett cases
Abortion
In Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, et al. v. Commissioner of the Indiana State Department of Health et al., the Seventh Circuit denied a full court rehearing.
At issue was an Indiana law requiring that aborted baby remains be given a respectable disposal. The regulation law had been ruled against by a three judge panel.
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Barrett joined a dissent authored by Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook, arguing that the Seventh Circuit should have granted a hearing before the full court.
“Animal-welfare statutes are rational not simply because all mammals can feel pain and may well have emotions, but also because animal welfare affects human welfare,” read the Easterbrook dissent.
“… a ban on slaughtering horses for human consumption is rationally related to the goal of reducing dismay at poor treatment of these creatures … Isn’t that equally true of a statute about fetal remains?”
In Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. v. Kristina Box et al., Barrett joined a dissent by Circuit Judge Michael Stephen Kanne seeking a rehearing of a case.
At the center of the litigation was another Indiana law, this time requiring minors to give parental notification before undergoing an abortion procedure.
"This case implicates an important and recurring issue of federalism: Under what circumstances, and with what evidence, may a state be prevented from enforcing its law before it goes into effect?" wrote Judge Kanne.
"Given the existing unsettled status of pre-enforcement challenges in the abortion context, I believe this issue should be decided by our full court. Preventing a state statute from taking effect is a judicial act of extraordinary gravity in our federal structure."
