AmicUs

CWL joined an amicus brief filed January 30, 2024, in the U.S. Supreme Court in the consolidated cases, Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and Danco Laboratories, LLC v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, Case Nos. 23-235 and 23-236. CWL supports the FDA and Danco in the challenge to the federal approval of the drug mifepristone, which was approved by the FDA in 2000 for use in facilitating abortions. Plaintiffs in the cases argue that mifepristone is unsafe and that the FDA should not have approved it in 2000 and should not have subsequently approved loosened restrictions on the use of the drug. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in favor of the plaintiffs April 7, 2023, granting a preliminary injunction barring the use of the drug nationwide. The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part in a ruling August 16, 2023, lifting the district court’s stay of the original 2000 approval and the 2019 approval of a generic version of mifepristone, but affirming the district court’s ruling rejecting the FDA’s 2016 and 2021 actions that had loosened restrictions on the use of mifepristone, such as increasing the maximum gestational age for use from seven weeks to ten weeks, allowing telehealth visits, and allowing medical professionals who are not physicians to prescribe the drug. (Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food and Drug Administration, 78 F.4^th 210 (5^th Cir. 2023).) The Fifth Circuit’s ruling was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court. CWL joined 236 reproductive health, rights and justice organizations in the amicus brief filed January 30, 2024. CWL previously joined two earlier briefs in the litigation, arguing in support of the federal approval of mifepristone. Oral arguments are set for March 26, 2024.

Pending

CWL joined an amicus brief filed October 13, 2023, in Helen Doe v. Thomas Horne, Case No. 23-16030, in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The brief, filed by the National Women’s Law Center, was filed in support of two students who filed suit challenging Arizona’s law seeking to ban them from playing school sports because they are transgender girls. The girls and their families, represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, won a strong preliminary injunction at the district court level finding that Arizona’s anti-trans sports ban likely violates Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, especially given controlling Ninth Circuit precedent in Hecox v. Little (striking down Idaho’s illegal ban targeting trans girls and women) and the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision. The State of Arizona, along with two private defendant-appellants, appealed the preliminary injunction. The amicus brief highlighted how school policies fostering safety and inclusion for LGBTQ+ youth, especially transgender and nonbinary students, are both consistent with Title IX and a key aspect of creating gender equity in education. Access to school sports is an important part of education for all students, associated with lifelong academic, social, and health benefits, and rules scrutinizing whether girls are “feminine enough” perpetuate sexist and racist stereotypes that harm all girls and women.

Pending

CWL joined an amicus brief filed June 22, 2023, in LaRose v. King County, Case No. 56455-6-II, in the Washington Court of Appeal. The brief, filed by the National Women’s Law Center and the Washington Employment Lawyers Association, was filed in support of Sheila LaRose, a former public defender who experienced sexual harassment, including stalking, by a former client. Her employer had no sex harassment policy and took no action for months after she reported the harassment. LaRose won a multi-million-dollar judgment against King County, and the County appealed. The amicus brief highlighted that employers are required to protect workers from workplace-related harassment by third parties, even if the harassment occurs outside the bounds of a physical place of employment. The brief emphasized that limiting protections solely to a physical place of employment ignores both the types of harassment workers face as well as the parameters of today’s work environments. The brief also underscored that requiring a more burdensome approach than informing a direct supervisor of workplace discrimination, such as informing top or “upper” management, would create even more barriers to reporting discrimination and frustrate the purpose of workplace civil rights laws.

Pending

CWL joined two amicus briefs filed on behalf of more than 200 reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations, opposing a challenge to the abortion medication mifepristone, in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food & Drug Administration. The National Women’s Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Reproductive Rights, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America filed the briefs in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Abortion opponents filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, arguing that mifepristone is unsafe and should not have been approved by the FDA. The District Court granted a preliminary injunction April 7, 2023, barring the use of mifepristone nationwide. The FDA filed an emergency request for a stay in the Fifth Circuit, which partially granted the stay. The FDA filed an emergency application for a stay with the Supreme Court on April 14, 2023, and CWL joined an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court in support of the stay the same day. The Supreme Court issued an order on April 21, 2023, staying the ruling pending appeal. CWL joined a second amicus brief, this one filed in the Fifth Circuit on May 1, 2023. In the brief, amici explained how the district court’s decision was contrary to the conclusion of the scientific and medical community that medication abortion is one of the safest medication regimens in the United States and around the world. Amici also explained the devastating consequences if the Court does not reverse the district court’s decision and reject plaintiffs’ unfounded claims of injury, including that the ban would restrict access to abortion care even in states where it is legal. On August 16, 2023, the Fifth Circuit affirmed in part the district court order regarding the 2000 FDA approval of mifepristone. The court vacated the district court’s stay of the 2000 approval of mifepristone and of the 2019 approval of a generic version of the drug. The court affirmed the district court’s stay of the FDA’s 2016 and 2021 actions that loosened restrictions on the use of mifepristone, such as increasing the maximum gestational age for use from 49 to 70 days, allowing telehealth visits, and allowing non-physicians to prescribe mifepristone. The Supreme Court granted cert December 13, 2023 in the consolidated cases, FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and Danco Laboratories, LLC v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

Neutral

CWL filed an amicus brief December 5, 2022, in National Center for Public Policy Research v. Weber, Case No. 22-15822, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. National Center for Public Policy Research v. Weber is one of three lawsuits challenging California SB 826, which was signed into law in 2018 and requires all publicly held corporations headquartered in California to have a minimum number of women on their boards of directors. The other lawsuits are Meland v. Weber, No. 2:19-cv-2288 JAM-AC (E.D. Cal.), No. 22-15149 (9th Cir.), and Crest v. Padilla, No. 19STCV27561 (Los Angeles Superior Court), No. B322276 (Cal. Ct. App., 2d Dist.). CWL’s amicus brief provided context on the discriminatory structural barriers that lead corporations to exclude women from their boardrooms, explained the need for governmental action to halt this discrimination against women at the highest levels of business leadership, and highlighted the many experienced and well-qualified women who are willing and able to serve on public company boards. San Diego appellate specialists Johanna Schiavoni and Melanie Gold, of Complex Appellate Litigation Group, drafted the amicus brief on behalf of CWL.

Pending