Florida Supreme Court

Attorney General Ashley Moody's office filed a 40-page document urging the Florida Supreme Court to reject an emergency motion that would effectively put the 15-week ban on hold while a legal battle plays out.

Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office said it thinks the Florida Supreme Court should reverse a decades-old position that a privacy clause in the state constitution protects abortion rights.

Plaintiff attorneys filed a brief arguing that the Supreme Court should review a decision by the 1st District Court of Appeal that tossed out a temporary injunction against the law.

The attorneys for the clinics and a doctor filed documents contending that a ruling last month by the 1st District Court of Appeal allowing 15-week ban to be in effect has caused “irreparable harm.”

The lawyers for abortion clinics and a doctor filed a notice that said they will ask the state Supreme Court to take up a challenge to a July 21 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal.

The appeals court ruled that clinics and a doctor who challenged the law were not entitled to a temporary injunction to block the law. It also rejected the state request that the temporary-injunction issue go straight to the Florida Supreme Court.

Lawyers in Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office filed a 28-page response at the 1st District Court of Appeal, a day after abortion clinics and a physician asked the court to put the law on hold.

A judge denied a request to vacate the stay, meaning the injunction remains on hold until an appeals court — or possibly the Florida Supreme Court — rules on the state’s appeal.

The attorneys for abortion clinics and a physician filed a response after Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office last week requested that the case effectively bypass the 1st District Court of Appeal and go to the Florida Supreme Court.

The request was part of a flurry of legal activity after Leon County Judge John Cooper issued a temporary injunction to block the law and the state filed an appeal, which keeps the ban in place.