United States Fourth Circuit

In a challenge to a restriction on late-term abortions, summary judgment for Plaintiff is reversed where: 1) the hypothetical situation posited by Plaintiff did not present a sufficiently frequent circumstance to render the statute wholly unconstitutional for all circumstances; and 2) Plaintiff did not present sufficiently concrete circumstances in which the as-applied challenge could be resolved.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/24/2009
• Published 06/24/2009

Judges

• Before WILLIAMS, Chief Judge, and WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, MICHAEL, MOTZ, TRAXLER, KING, GREGORY, SHEDD, DUNCAN, and AGEE, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  William Eugene Thro, Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellants.  Stephanie Toti, Center for Reproductive Rights, New York, New York, for Appellees.   ON BRIEF:  Robert F. McDonnell, Attorney General of Virginia, Stephen R. McCullough, State Solicitor General, William C. Mims, Chief Deputy Attorney General, David E. Johnson, Deputy Attorney General, Maureen Riley Matsen, Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellants. Janet Crepps, Center for Reproductive Rights, New York, New York, for Appellees.  Patrick M. McSweeney, McSweeney, Crump, Childress & Temple, P.C., Richmond, Virginia;  Mailee R. Smith, Denise M. Burke, Americans United for Life, Chicago, Illinois, for Virginia Delegates Robert G. Marshall, Kathy J. Byron, M. Kirkland Cox, Thomas D. Gear, William J. Howell, Timothy D. Hugo, L. Scott Lingamfelter, Samuel A. Nixon, Jr., Brenda L. Pogge, and R. Lee Ware, Jr., and Virginia Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel, and U.S. Senator Tom A. Coburn, Amici Supporting Appellants.  Jay Alan Sekulow, Stuart J. Roth, James M. Henderson, Sr., Walter M. Weber, American Center for Law & Justice, Washington, D.C.;  Shannon Demos Woodruff, Kristina J. Wenberg, American Center for Law & Justice, Virginia Beach, Virginia, for The American Center for Law and Justice, Amicus Supporting Appellants.  Kimberly A. Parker, Katherine A. Gillespie, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, L.L.P., Washington, D.C.;  Talcott Camp, Reproductive Freedom Project, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, New York, New York, for National Abortion Federation, American Medical Women's Association, Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, Medical Students for Choice, and Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, Amici Supporting Appellees.