''Garza v. Hargan'' (''Azar v. Garza'' after Alex Azar's confirmation as

United States Secretary of Health and Human Services The United States secretary of health and human services is the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all health matters. The secretary is ...

) is a case before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit regarding a juvenile

undocumented immigrant Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwa ...

in the custody of

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

who sought to have an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

Background

In early September 2017, a seventeen-year-old

Jane Doe John Doe (male) and Jane Doe (female) are multiple-use placeholder names that are used when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In the context of law enforcement in the United States, such names are often ...

, was apprehended after illegally crossing the

Mexico–United States border The Mexico–United States border ( es, frontera Estados Unidos–México) is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traver ...

into

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. As an unaccompanied minor, Jane was placed into care of the

Office of Refugee Resettlement The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is a program of the Administration for Children and Families, an office within the United States Department of Health and Human Services, created with the passing of the United States Refugee Act of 1980 ( ...

. Jane, who was then eight weeks pregnant, was sent to an ORR funded shelter where she decided to have an abortion. A Texas judge granted Jane a judicial bypass to the state's parental consent law and allowed her to seek an abortion on September 25, 2017. The ORR refused to allow Jane to leave the shelter to have her abortion. In March 2017, new ORR Director Scott Lloyd had forbid federally funded shelters from taking "any action that facilitates" an abortion without his express approval. Jane's guardian ad litem, Rochelle Garza, then sued the Acting

Eric Hargan Eric David Hargan (born June 3, 1968) is an American lawyer and government official who served as United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services from October 2017 to January 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Hargan previously a ...

, in the

United States District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of ...

, alleging that the government was violating Jane's constitutional right to an abortion in the United States. On October 18, 2017, U.S. District Judge

Tanya S. Chutkan Tanya Sue Chutkan (born July 5, 1962) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Biography Chutkan was born on July 5, 1962, in Kingston, Jamaica. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree ...

granted Jane's request for a temporary restraining order, ordering the government to allow Jane to leave the shelter to attend the pre-abortion counseling required by Texas law and to undergo the abortion. On October 20, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the government's emergency motion to stay Judge Chutkan's order. In an unsigned order by Circuit Judges

Brett Kavanaugh Brett Michael Kavanaugh ( ; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since Oc ...

and

Karen L. Henderson Karen LeCraft Henderson (born July 11, 1944) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District ...

, the court allowed ORR to keep Jane from leaving its shelter to undergo an abortion until October 31, provided that the government "expeditiously" placed Jane in an outside sponsor's custody. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett wrote a dissent in which she argued the majority was imposing an undue burden on abortion in violation of ''

Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt ''Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt'', 579 U.S. 582 (2016), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court decided on June 27, 2016. The Court ruled 5–3 that Texas cannot place restrictions on the delivery of abortion services that create an ...

'' (2016). On October 24, the full '' en banc'' D.C. Circuit reversed the panel majority, reimposing the district court order requiring the government to grant Jane access to an abortion. Judge Millet added a concurrence reiterating the arguments in her earlier dissent. Judge Henderson dissented, arguing that an undocumented immigrant is not a "person" under the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

and so does not have rights under the

Due Process Clause In United States constitutional law, a Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibits arbitrary deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the government except as ...

. Judge Kavanaugh, joined by Judges Henderson and

Thomas B. Griffith Thomas Beall Griffith (born July 5, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who was a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2005 to 2020. Griffith was Senate Legal Counsel, the chief legal o ...

, dissented, defending the panel decision. That day, District Judge Chutkan amended her order to allow Jane's abortion to proceed "promptly and without delay". Jane had her pregnancy aborted on October 25.

Supreme Court

On November 3, 2017, the Solicitor General of the United States,

Noel Francisco Noel John Francisco (born August 21, 1969) is an American lawyer who served as Solicitor General of the United States from 2017 to 2020. He was the first Asian Americans, Asian American confirmed by the United States Senate to hold the position. ...

, petitioned the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

for a writ of

certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...

to vacate the D.C. Circuit's ruling and moved for sanctions against Jane's lawyers at the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

. Francisco accused

David D. Cole David D. Cole is the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Before joining the ACLU in July 2016, Cole was the Hon. George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy at the Georgetown University Law Center from ...

of professional misconduct for not informing the Justice Department that Jane's abortion procedure had been rescheduled to earlier than anticipated. According to Francisco, this wrongfully prevented the government from seeking an emergency order from the Supreme Court blocking the procedure. On June 4, 2018, the Supreme Court granted review and vacated the judgment on the ground that the claim for

injunctive relief An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in par ...

granted by the lower court had become moot when the girl followed through with the abortion. Vacating the lower court decision prevents it from having any value as

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

. The Court did not grant the government's request for sanctions against Jane's attorneys. The opinion was unsigned.

Related developments

On December 18, 2017, Judge Chutkan granted relief to two additional pregnant girls in ORR care who had sued for access to an abortion. On March 30, 2018, Judge Chutkan certified the pregnant girls' lawsuit as a

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

and ordered the government to provide access to abortions to all girls in ORR's custody.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Case page
at SCOTUSblog
Case page
at the

United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court 2018 in United States case law United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit cases United States abortion case law American Civil Liberties Union litigation Immigration policy of Donald Trump

Background

Supreme Court

Related developments

Further reading

References

External links