On August 22 a group of organizations that support women seeking abortions filed a class action against Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas district attorneys in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division. In Fund Texas Choice, The North Texas Equal Access Fund, The Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity, Frontera Fund, The Afiya Center, West Fund, Jane’s Due Process, Clinic Access Support Network, and Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, DO, MPH, FACOG v. Ken Paxton, et al. (No. 1:22-cv-859), plaintiffs, who are Texas-based non-profit abortion funds and practical support networks, seek a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief “to declare null and void the application of Texas anti-abortion laws (statutory citations to the pre-Roe Penal Code provisions and the Trigger Ban) to Plaintiffs based upon Plaintiffs’ exercise of their First Amendment Constitutional rights and/or their well-established right to travel interstate.”
The pleading zeroes in on the now-infamous Freedom Caucus letter threatening the plaintiffs and some private businesses with criminal prosecution for aiding and abetting abortions performed in other states. It also seeks to enjoin the retroactive enforcement of the pre-Roe criminal statutes to the organizations and their staffs, volunteers, and donors for pre-Dobbsactivities.
This is no fly-by-night lawsuit. The plaintiffs are represented by Jennifer Ecklund, Elizabeth Myers, Allyn Lowell, John Atkins, and Elizabeth Rocha of the national law firm Thompson Coburn LLP and Alex Wilson Albright, Marcy Hogan Greer, Kevin Dubose, and Kirsten Casteñeda. This is legal team with extensive subject matter and procedural expertise. Alex Albright, for example, is one of the nation’s foremost experts on federal and state civil and appellate procedure. Kevin Dubose has served as chair of the State Bar Appellate Section and president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Marcy Hogan Greer’s practice includes class action and mass tort cases, as well as federal and state multidistrict litigation, and Kirsten Casteñeda is a board-certified appellate lawyer (it doesn’t hurt that the firm also boasts not one but two SCOTX alumni, Chief Justice Jefferson and Justice Paul Green). The Thompson Coburn attorneys are specialists in health care, insurance, commercial litigation, and labor and employment law. We very much doubt that they will bow to the intimidation and threats that will probably result from this lawsuit. In any event, this is important work that has to be done, and we applaud the courage of the plaintiffs and their attorneys for putting themselves on the line to do it.
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