Alabama
Judge: State can't prohibit abortion during pandemic
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A federal judge on Sunday ruled that Alabama cannot ban abortions as part of the state's response to coronavirus.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued a preliminary injunction sought by clinics to prevent the state from forbidding abortions as part of a ban on elective medical procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thompson said abortion providers can decide whether a procedure can wait.
"Based on the current record, the defendants' efforts to combat COVID-19 do not outweigh the lasting harm imposed by the denial of an individual's right to terminate her pregnancy, by an undue burden or increase in risk on patients imposed by a delayed procedure, or by the cloud of unwarranted prosecution against providers," Thompson wrote in an opinion.
The ruling was a victory for abortion rights advocates who are fighting efforts in Texas, Ohio, Alabama and other states to prohibit abortion services during the COVID-19 pandemic. States have argued they need to conserve medical equipment and potential hospital beds during the pandemic.
Abortion clinics in Alabama said they sought the injunction after the state refused to clarify that the clinics could continue to operate.
Alabama had ordered a postponement of medical procedures except in cases of a medical emergency or "to avoid serious harm from an underlying condition or disease, or necessary as part of a patient's ongoing and active treatment."
A lawyer representing clinics praised the decision.
"Preventing someone from getting an abortion doesn't do anything to stop the COVID-19 virus, it just takes the decision whether to have a child out of their hands," said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union's Reproductive Freedom Project.
Similar legal fights over abortions during the pandemic are ongoing in Texas, Ohio and Oklahoma.
Floirda
Herald: DeSantis lawyer pressured law firm not to file suit
MIAMI (AP) - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' general counsel pressured a law firm representing the Miami Herald to stop the filing of a public records lawsuit seeking information from state officials about which elderly-care facilities in Florida had coronavirus cases, the newspaper reported Sunday.
The backdoor pressure worked as the Holland & Knight law firm told its senior partner representing the newspaper to abandon the lawsuit, which the Herald is now pursuing using another law firm, the newspaper said.
Holland & Knight regularly does work for the state.
"We are disappointed that the governor's office would go so far as to apply pressure on our legal counsel to prevent the release of public records that are critical to the health and safety of Florida's most vulnerable citizens," said Miami Herald publisher and executive editor Aminda Marqués González. "We shouldn't have had to resort to legal action in the first place. Anyone with a relative in an elder care facility has a right to know if their loved ones are at risk so they can make an informed decision about their care."
A spokeswoman for Holland & Knight did not immediately respond to an email inquiry Sunday seeking comment.
Helen Ferre, a spokeswoman for the governor, told the Herald there was no effort to strong-arm the newspaper. It's normal practice for lawyers on both sides of pending litigation to talk to see if there's a way to resolve the conflict outside a courtroom, she said.
"It is patently false to say that the governor's office contacted Holland & Knight to ask that the firm not file a lawsuit on behalf of The Miami Herald," Ferre told the newspaper.
The Herald's lawyers had drafted the lawsuit this past week and planned to file the petition in Leon County against DeSantis' office, the Florida Department of Health and the Agency for Health Care Administration.
DeSantis' general counsel, Joe Jacquot, said he never asked the firm not to represent the Herald during his conversation with Holland & Knight attorney George Meros.
"I said, 'Hey, we got this letter and it's a pre-suit letter. Let me know if Holland & Knight wants to discuss it'," Jacquot said. "George just said, 'OK, I'll get back to you'."
The Holland & Knight attorney for the newspaper said he was told to stand down after the conversation between Jacquot and Meros.
"They asked us not to file this lawsuit on behalf of the Herald," said Sanford Bohrer. "They did not want Holland & Knight to represent the Herald."
Arkansas
Clinic challenges state banning abortions during pandemic
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas' only surgical abortion clinic on Monday asked a federal judge to block a state order banning the procedure except to protect the life or health of the mother during the coronavirus pandemic.
Little Rock Family Planning Services filed the motion days after officials said the facility could not perform surgical abortions except to protect the life or health of the mother.
State health officials accused the clinic of violating a order preventing elective surgeries during the outbreak. Other states have used similar orders to restrict or ban abortions.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, which represents the clinic, asked to add the request to an ongoing lawsuit that led to three of the state's abortion restrictions being blocked last year.
The state on Monday said the number of coronavirus cases has risen to nearly 1,400. Two more people have died from the virus, bringing the state's total deaths to 29.
North Carolina
Bank's lawsuit over service outage allowed to continue
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - BB&T Corp. will continue to a sue a software vendor in a federal North Carolina court over what it claims was a "catastrophic" outage that kept customers from using online banking services.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports that federal Judge Catherine Eagles denied the vendor's motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Friday. So, the suit is moving forward.
BB&T became Truist Financial Corp. in December after purchasing SunTrust Banks Inc. The vendor that's being sued is Hitachi Vantara, which recently changed the name of the subsidiary to Hitachi Corp. LLC.
The software firm is being accused of breach of contract as well as gross professional negligence over its hardware.
The bank claim in its complaint that it lost the ability to access centralized customer information. But Hitachi said in response that BB&T failed to follow its operational advice.
Published: Tue, Apr 14, 2020
