Louisiana Lawsuit Could Force New York and California To Extradite Doctors Accused of Shipping Abortion Pills

Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, is planning to ask federal courts to compel New York and California to honor the Pelican State’s extradition requests for doctors accused of shipping abortion pills.Last year, Louisiana sent New York an extradition request for a doctor, Margaret Carpenter, who was accused of shipping abortion pills to a minor. New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, rejected the request and, last month, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, rejected a similar request.Both states have so-called shield laws, which are designed to protect medical professionals from civil or criminal penalties if they ship abortion pills to states that restrict abortion.On Thursday, a spokesman for Ms. Murrill said the attorney general plans to file a federal lawsuit, seeking to compel California and New York to honor the extradition requests. The move is expected to tee up a legal challenge to the constitutionality of shield laws.“Kathy Hochul and Gavin Newsom are not above the Constitution, and we will hold them accountable. The Supreme Court’s precedents on important Constitutional provisions like the Extradition Clause and the Full Faith and Credit Clause forbid this assault on Louisiana’s sovereignty and her citizens,” Ms. Murrill said in a statement. The statement did not provide a timeline for when the lawsuits will be filed. Mr. Newsom responded on X, “Louisiana plans to sue me because I won’t extradite a doctor for providing an abortion. @AGLizMurrill: Go f— yourself. California will never help you criminalize healthcare.”The lawsuits may also clarify questions surrounding Louisiana’s requests for the extradition of defendants who were not in the state at the time of their alleged crimes. Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution states that anyone who “shall flee from Justice and be found in another state” shall be “delivered up” to the state that filed the extradition request. But because the doctors in New York and California were not in Louisiana when they shipped the abortion pills, legal scholars are not so sure that the Democratic-run states are required to comply with the extradition requests.The director of the Center for Life with the Alliance Defending Freedom, Erik Baptist, told Law360 last year that the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution, which requires states to recognize other states’ judicial proceedings, is the governing principle in this case. “If there is a criminal, not just indictment, but ultimately a conviction against Dr. Carpenter in Louisiana for her harmful actions to the teenage girl, then New York State should relinquish and provide Dr. Carpenter to the officials of the state of Louisiana,” Mr. Baptist said.Louisiana is not the only state testing the legality of shield laws. Texas asked a New York court to force an acting Ulster County clerk, Taylor Bruck, to enforce its judgment against Dr. Carpenter.A state supreme court justice, David Gandin, rejected that request in November, finding that Mr. Bruck acted lawfully when he declined to file the judgment against Dr. Carpenter.

Louisiana Lawsuit Could Force New York and California To Extradite Doctors Accused of Shipping Abortion Pills

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