By Dave Andrusko
District Judge Donald Johnson has asked Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to present him with more information by tomorrow morning at which time he will decide whether to extend a temporary restraining order (TRO) again. Last week, Judge Johnson issued a TRO blocking the state’s near total ban on abortion.
Monday’s hearing was “the next step in a lawsuit brought by abortion providers who have challenged the state’s trigger law as ‘constitutionally vague,’” Katie Shepherd reported.
Shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision in late June, the plaintiffs sought a temporary restraining order that allowed abortion providers to keep offering services as the case moved forward. That order was granted June 27 but then dissolved July 8, when the lawsuit was moved to a different jurisdiction. For a few days, abortion was illegal throughout Louisiana.
Another judge granted a second temporary restraining order last week, again pausing the state’s abortion ban.
Landry critiqued the court for temporarily blocking enforcement of the state’s abortion laws that have been supported “at the ballot box and through their elected legislature again and again and again.”
“To have the judiciary create a legal circus is disappointing and what discredits the institutions we rely upon for a stable society,” Landry tweeted shortly after a judge granted the second temporary restraining order. “The rule of law must be followed, and I will not rest until it is. Unfortunately, we will have to wait a little bit longer for that to happen.”