State v. Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida

342 So.3d 863

STATE of Florida, et al., Appellants,

v.PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SOUTHWEST AND CENTRAL FLORIDA, et al., Appellees.

No. 1D22-2034

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

July 21, 2022

Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Bilal Ahmed Faruqui, Assistant Attorney General, John Guard, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Natalie P. Christmas, Assistant Attorney General, James H. Percival, Deputy Attorney General, Tallahassee; Henry Charles Whitaker, Solicitor General, Daniel W. Bell, Chief Deputy Solicitor, Tallahassee, for Appellants.

Jordan E. Pratt and Christine K. Pratt, First Liberty Institute, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae First Liberty Institute; Christopher Mills, Spero Law, LLC, Charleston, South Carolina, and Chad Mizelle, Tampa, for Amici Curiae Florida Pregnancy Centers, in support of Appellants.

Benjamin James Stevenson, ACLU Foundation of Florida, Pensacola; Daniel Boaz Tilley, ACLU Foundation of Florida, Miami; Nicholas L. Warren, ACLU Foundation of Florida, Tallahassee; Jennifer Dalven, Whitney White, and Johanna Zacarias, ACLU Foundation of New York, New York, New York; Autumn Katz and Caroline Sacerdote, Center for Reproductive Rights, New York, New York; Tassity Johnson, Jenner & Block LLP, Washington, D.C.; Shoba Pillay and April A. Otterberg, Jenner & Block LLP, Chicago, Illinois; Jennifer Sandman, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, New York, New York, for Appellees.

ORDER DENYING MOTION TO VACATE AUTOMATIC STAY AND REJECTING SUGGESTION FOR CERTIFICATION

B.L. Thomas, J.

We review Appellees’ "Emergency Motion to Vacate Automatic Stay of Temporary Injunction" to determine whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying Appellees’ same motion below. In so moving, Appellees carry a heavy burden of persuasion:

Rule 9.310(b)(2) provides for an automatic stay when the state or a public officer seeks review of a trial court's order. The automatic nature of the stay is grounded in judicial deference to governmental decisions. See St. Lucie [Cnty.] v. N. Palm Dev. Corp. , 444 So. 2d 1133, 1135 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984). The rationale for automatically staying such orders when a public official seeks appellate review is that "planning-level decisions are made in the public interest and should be accorded a commensurate degree of deference." Id. An automatic stay also seeks to protect the public against "any adverse consequences realized from proceeding under an erroneous judgment." Id. And so, a trial court may vacate an automatic stay only "under the most compelling circumstances." Fla. Dep't of Health v. People United for Med. Marijuana , 250 So. 3d 825, 828 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018) (quoting State, Dep't of Env't Prot. v. Pringle , 707 So. 2d 387, 390 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998) ). The party seeking to vacate an automatic stay has the burden of producing evidence showing "the most compelling circumstances." See Pringle , 707 So. 2d at 390. In deciding whether to vacate the automatic stay, the court must consider "(1) the government's likelihood of success on appeal, and (2) the likelihood of irreparable harm if the automatic stay is reinstated." People United , 250 So. 3d at 828. A trial court abuses its discretion by vacating an automatic stay when the party seeking to vacate the stay does not make the necessary showing of compelling circumstances, when the government is likely to succeed on appeal, or when reinstatement of the stay is unlikely to cause irreparable harm. See id . at 828–29.

DeSantis v. Fla. Educ. Ass'n , 325 So. 3d 145, 150–51 (Fla. 1st DCA 2020).

In this case, the trial court granted a temporary injunction enjoining chapter 2022-69, Laws of Florida (2022) ("HB 5"), entitled an "act relating to reducing fetal and infant mortality." The law became effective on July 1, 2022, and was codified in part as sections 390.011 and 390.0111, Florida Statutes. Absent certain exceptions for the mother's health and fatal fetal conditions, the law prohibits abortions if "the gestational age of the fetus is more than 15 weeks." § 390.0111(1)(a)–(c), Fla. Stat. (2022). Under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.310(b)(2), as noted above, the order granting the injunction was automatically stayed when the State of Florida filed its notice of appeal.

After the bill was enacted, Appellees, several abortion clinics and a single abortion medical doctor, challenged the law as a violation of article I, section 23 of the Florida Constitution, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Art. I, § 23, Fla. Const. ("Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person's private life except as otherwise provided herein."). No pregnant woman asserted any claim under the suit. Appellees stated that they recognized "people of all gender identities, including transgender men and gender-diverse individuals, may also become pregnant and seek abortion services, and would thus also suffer irreparable harm under HB 5." But no such person asserted any claim in the suit either.

In the complaint, the abortion clinics asserted that they sued on behalf of their staff, including physicians "and patients." Dr. Shelly Hsiao-Ying Tien, M.D., M.P.H, sued on behalf of herself and her patients. The complaint states:

[A]bsent an injunction, Plaintiffs and their staff will be forced to stop providing care to patients seeking abortions after 15 weeks ... contrary to their good-faith medical judgment and their patients’ needs and wishes. With no one available to provide such care in Florida, Florida women will suffer irreparable harm ... [and thus] [t]he Act irreparably harms Plaintiffs, Plaintiffs’ staff, and their patients , and there is no adequate remedy at law for the Act's violation of the Florida Constitution.

(emphasis added). The complaint requested as a remedy that the circuit court issue a "declaratory judgment that Section 4 of HB 5 and the related definitions in Section 3(6) and 3(7) of HB 5 violate the rights of Plaintiffs, their patients , and Floridians, as protected by the Florida Constitution, and are therefore void and of no effect." The complaint further requested that the circuit court issue "temporary and final injunctive relief ... enjoining Defendants ... from enforcing, threatening to enforce, or otherwise applying the provisions of that statute."

To be clear then, Appellees have not asserted a violation of their own constitutional rights. Instead, they seek to vindicate the privacy rights of their patients. Yet contrary to the circuit court's order ruling that pregnant women cannot adequately challenge abortion-related legislation, history provides numerous examples of such legal actions. See, e.g. , Renee B. v. Fla. Ag. for Health Care Admin., 790 So. 2d 1036, 1037 (Fla. 2001) ; In re T. W., 551 So. 2d 1186, 1189 (Fla. 1989) ; Burton v. State, 49 So. 3d 263, 264 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010) ; see generally, Alterra Healthcare Corp. v. Est. of Shelley , 827 So. 2d 936, 938 (Fla. 2002). Here, Appellees failed to allege in their complaint that pregnant women cannot assert their own rights in court. Conversely, the State here and below has argued that Appellees cannot assert any purported irreparable harm on behalf of pregnant women.

Furthermore, a temporary injunction cannot be issued absent a showing of irreparable harm. Hernando Cnty. Sch. Bd. v. Rhea, 213 So. 3d 1032, 1040 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017) ("To obtain an injunction, the movant must establish four criteria," including "the likelihood of irreparable harm."). As to Appellees themselves, any loss of income from the operation of the law cannot provide a basis for a finding of irreparable harm as a matter of law. And the parties do not dispute that the operation of the law will not affect the majority of provided abortions. We have unambiguously held that "case law is clear that economic harm does not constitute irreparable injury; that is, ... money damages due to a decrease in patient volume do not suffice to demonstrate irreparable injury ." State, Dep't of Health v. Bayfront HMA Med. Ctr., LLC , 236 So. 3d 466, 476 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018) (emphasis added).

And we very recently held that a circuit court may not grant a preliminary remedy in a civil suit, but may only issue a constitutional writ of injunction, known now as a "temporary injunction," which is procedural relief , under the authority of article V, section 5(b) of the Florida Constitution. Sec'y of State Cord Byrd v. Black Voters Matter Capacity Bldg. Inst., Inc. , ––– So.3d ––––, ––––, 47 Fla. L. Weekly D1152, 2022 WL 1698353, at *1 (Fla. 1st DCA May 27, 2022) ("The function of the writ is solely preservative or preventative—to preserve the subject matter in controversy until a final disposition after a trial." (emphasis added)).

While we do not and need not address Appellees’ standing to obtain declaratory relief, we do hold that they cannot obtain temporary injunctive relief as they cannot assert the privacy rights of pregnant women necessary to substantiate a showing of irreparable harm, an indispensable requirement of a temporary injunction: " ‘irreparable harm cannot be speculative, but must be real and ascertainable.’ " Mayport Hous. P'ship, Ltd. v. Albani , 244 So. 3d 1176, 1177 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018) (citation omitted).

As we held in Black Voters Matter :

A temporary injunction is not an adjudication; it does not decide the merits. See City of Miami Beach v. State ex rel. Taylor , 49 So. 2d 538, 538 (Fla. 1950) (approving temporary restraining order because it did not purport to "decide any material points in controversy, but only to preserve the status quo pending the litigation"); Lieberman v. Marshall , 236 So. 2d 120, 125 (Fla. 1970) (noting that the "purpose of an injunction is not to take sides"); [City of Jacksonville v.] Naegele Outdoor Advert. Co. , 634 So. 2d [750] at 754 [(Fla. 1st DCA 1994)] (noting that a temporary injunction "does not decide the merits of the case"); see also Michele Pommier Models, Inc. v. Diel , 886 So. 2d 993,

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