Friday, February 01, 2019

Michigan's New AG Withdraws From Amicus Briefs In 8 Controversial Cases

Detroit News reports that Michigan's Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel who last month replaced Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette has withdrawn Michigan's support of amicus briefs in eight high profile lawsuits. According to the paper:
The state’s newly appointed solicitor general Fadwa Hammoud filed the motions to withdraw from the cases Tuesday, noting in each motion that the amicus briefs filed in support of the cases by Republican former Attorney General Bill Schuette “no longer represents the legal position of the State of Michigan.”...
The four cases related to reproductive rights included litigation challenging a Kentucky law requiring a doctor to perform an ultrasound before an abortion; an Ohio law that criminalized abortions performed because of a fetal indication of Down syndrome; a federal case that required permission from the Office of Refugee Resettlement before an unaccompanied minor could have an abortion at a Texas holding facility; and an Ohio law that banned government funding for Planned Parenthood non-abortion health care programs and education programs because the agency provided abortion services.
Another case that Nessel withdrew from alleged a geriatric management facility in Missouri had discriminated against a gay man when the facility allegedly withdrew an offer of employment....
Three other cases ... were filed by ... Freedom of Religion Foundation. One case challenged the presence of a Latin cross on the Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, seal and flag; another in Wisconsin challenged laws that allowed for income tax exemptions for religious clergy, but not for members of the Freedom of Religion Foundation; and a third challenged the U.S. House chaplain’s unwillingness to allow the co-president of Freedom From Religion Foundation to deliver an invocation on the House floor.