Ifeanyi Charles Anthony Causeway Medical Suite v. Mike Foster Richard P Ieyoub State of Louisiana’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The central weakness of the panel’s argument, and the fatal flaw of the dissent’s argument that follows this opinion, is that, notwithstanding that the defendants are powerless to enforce Act 825 against the plaintiffs (or to prevent any threatened injury from its enforcement), the plaintiffs yet must show (1) how these impotent defendants play a causal role in the plaintiffs’ injury and (2) how these defendants can redress their alleged actual or threatened injury. The panel’s reference to the self-enforcing nature of Act 825 is inapposite to the analysis of whether the plaintiffs have any controversy with these defendants. That is to say, the panel confuses the statute’s immediate coercive effect on the plaintiffs with any coercive effect that might be applied by the defendants — that is, the Governor and the Attorney General. This confusion allows the panel to state further: “The Plaintiffs’ assertion that they will be forced to discontinue offering legal abortions to patients because of the untenable risks of unlimited civil liability under an unconstitutional Act, sets forth a jus-ticiable case or controversy between the plaintiffs and the Governor and Attorney General of Louisiana.” Id. Once the coercive impact of the statute (coercive in that it exposes plaintiffs to unlimited tort liability by individual plaintiffs) is understood to be distinct from the coercive power of state officials (for example, if the State could institute criminal or civil proceedings under the”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 162 F. Supp. 2d 929 - Women's Medical Professional Corp. v. Taft

2. “[t]he perils of strict criminal liability are particularly acute here because of the uncertainty of the viability determination itself.... [E]ven if agreement may be reached on the probability of survival, different physicians equate viability with different probabilities of survival, and some physicians refuse to equate viability with any numerical probability at all. In the face of these uncertainties, it is not unlikely that experts will disagree over whether a particular fetus in the second trimester has advanced to the stage of viability. The prospect of such disagreement, in conjunction with a statute imposing strict civil and criminal liability for an erroneous determination of viability, could have a profound chilling effect on the willingness of physicians to perform abortions near the point of viability in the manner indicated by their best medical judgment.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Women's Medical Professional Corp. v. Taft

3. “encompasses legal consequences that flow from an act regardless of the total absence of wrongful intent on the part of the actor.” Okpalobi, 190 F.3d at 359 . 51 . See also Planned Parenthood, Sioux Falls Clinic v. Miller, 63 F.3d 1452, 1466-1467 (8th Cir.1995) (”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Women's Medical Professional Corp. v. Taft