Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas Sue New York, California, and Massachusetts in the U.S. Supreme Court Over Abortion Shield Laws

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(Baton Rouge, La) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall along with Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced a multistate lawsuit in the United States Supreme Court challenging the abortion “shield laws” of New York, California, and Massachusetts. Joined by Louisiana and Arkansas, Alabama claims that the “shield laws” violate the Constitution and federal law by promoting and facilitating the distribution of thousands of illegal abortion drugs through the mail and preventing pro-life states from enforcing their own laws.

After the Dobbs decision returned the issue of abortion to the states, New York, California, and Massachusetts swiftly moved to circumvent the Supreme Court and the law of the land—not by simply codifying abortion in their own territories, but by actively seeking ways to nullify the sovereign rights of pro-life states. They did this by adopting shield-law policies that restrict cooperation with out-of-state law enforcement, limit extradition, prevent the enforcement of certain out-of-state judgments and subpoenas, and harbor providers who prescribe and mail illegal abortion drugs into pro-life states—all to assure shield-law state residents that they can violate pro-life states’ laws with impunity and no fear of negative repercussions.

And they didn’t even try to hide their motives. New York Governor Kathy Hochul proudly proclaimed, “They can’t stop us—they can’t stop our providers, they can’t stop New York, and that’s how we’re fighting back.” 

Shield laws are thus not shields at all; they are swords disguised as shields and driven into pro-life states.

Alabama is asking the Supreme Court to hold that these laws violate the Full Faith and Credit Clause, the equal-sovereignty doctrine, the federal common law of public nuisance, and the Dormant Commerce Clause.