In Yellowhammer Fund v. Attorney General of Alabama, (MD AL, March 31, 2025), an Alabama federal district court in a 131-page opinion issued a declaratory judgment holding unconstitutional the Alabama Attorney General's threat to prosecute those who assist women seeking to travel out-of-state to obtain a legal abortion. The court found that the threat violated both the right to interstate travel and free expression rights. The court said in part:
The right to travel includes both the right to move physically between two States and to do what is legal in the destination State. The Supreme Court has held that States cannot punish their residents for traveling to another State and engaging in conduct that is lawful there....
This principle extends to people who enter a State to procure medical services, including abortions....
If a State cannot outright prohibit the plaintiffs’ clients from traveling to receive lawful out-of-state abortions, it cannot accomplish the same end indirectly by prosecuting those who assist them. ...
The Attorney General’s threatened enforcement of Alabama’s criminal laws imposes a content- and viewpoint-based restriction on speech. It restricts information and discussion about a specific subject--abortion-- to forbid encouraging a specific viewpoint-- access to a legal out-of-state abortion....
... Yellowhammer Fund’s act of pledging and providing funds on behalf of pregnant Alabamians who seek a legal abortion outside Alabama is expressive conduct, and, therefore, subject to First Amendment protection....
It is one thing for Alabama to outlaw by statute what happens in its own backyard. It is another thing for the State to enforce its values and laws, as chosen by the Attorney General, outside its boundaries by punishing its citizens and others who help individuals travel to another State to engage in conduct that is lawful there.... For example, the Alabama Attorney General would have within his reach the authority to prosecute Alabamians planning a Las Vegas bachelor party, complete with casinos and gambling, since casino-style gambling is outlawed in Alabama.... As the adage goes, be careful what you pray for.
