Nessel urges court to uphold preliminary injunction against unconstitutional Ohio abortion law
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel recently joined a coalition of attorneys general in filing a brief supporting a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion care?in?Preterm-Cleveland, et al. v. Himes.?The case involves an Ohio law that criminalizes abortion before viability based on a woman’s reason for seeking abortion,?which directly conflicts with the U.S. Supreme Court precedent set in?Roe v. Wade.
In December 2017, Ohio passed a law criminalizing?abortion?in certain?cases, at all stages of pregnancy, making it inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s decades-long legal standard established in?Roe v. Wade. Preterm-Cleveland,?a medical?facility, challenged the constitutionality of the law and successfully blocked?its enforcement, which was set to go into effect in March 2018. The decision was then appealed by?Ohio?to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which upheld the district court’s preliminary injunction.?Ohio sought further review of the decision, petitioning the Sixth Circuit to hear the appeal en banc (before all the judges of a court rather than a panel of judges). In the brief, the coalition restates its support for Preterm-Cleveland and the injunction, arguing that Ohio’s law is incompatible with the precedent set forth by Roe v. Wade.
“This law is part of a concerted effort to overturn Roe v. Wade and to take states – including Michigan – back to the dark ages where women were forced to resort to back-alley abortions for fear of criminal prosecution,” Nessel said. “Women should have access to abortion services, no matter what state they live in.”
When Nessel took office in January 2019, she withdrew Michigan from four federal cases that would limit women’s reproductive rights. In April 2019, Nessel filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to affirm unconstitutional a Kentucky law regulating abortion services. Later that month, she filed another brief in support of Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic.?
Joining Nessel in filing the brief are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.??
Man wins appeal over arson conviction
SOUTHGATE, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan appeals court has overturned the arson conviction of a man who insists he had no financial incentive to destroy his profitable pawn shop in suburban Detroit.
Judge Paul Cusick wouldn’t allow defense witnesses to testify about Joshua Burger’s insurance coverage and personal finances at the time of the fire in 2017.
It “deprived defendant of the ability to fully mount the defense that he had no financial motive to defraud the insurance company or set the building on fire,” the appeals court said in a 3-0 decision on Feb. 25.
Wayne County prosecutors are asking the court to reconsider the opinion.
Burger served 15 months in prison. His lawyer had argued that the fire at Pawn Max in Southgate probably was caused by an oily rag used to clean up a guitar.
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