U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene apparently got tired of finding out what was happening on his abortion case by picking up a newspaper or turning on the television.
Greene has ordered attorneys for the state and the American Civil Liberties Union to appear in his court Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. to tell him what is going on in Jane L. vs. Bangerter, the ACLU's challenge to Utah's new abortion law."He was probably reading in the paper that all these things were happening in the case but there were no motions filed," said Jeffrey Oritt, attorney for the ACLU.
The state announced several weeks ago that it would seek a stay in its own abortion case pending the outcome of the Louisiana abortion case, which the state believes is similar to Utah's.
But state attorneys delayed filing a motion seeking the stay, hoping instead to reach an out-of-court agreement with the ACLU over the postponement of the suit.
Now that the ACLU wants to fight the stay, the state will file a motion by noon Monday asking Greene to stay Utah's abortion case until March, said Miles Hol-man, attorney for the state.
By March, the state expects the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to have ruled on the Louisiana case and the U.S. Supreme Court to have decided if it will hear an appeal on that ruling, Holman said.
Utah's case was expected to go to trial early next year.
Greene ordered the state and the ACLU to file status reports on their cases by noon Monday as well. He wants each side to prepare a status report on abortion cases in other states as well as an update on Utah's suit.
Attorneys in the ACLU's New York headquarters will prepare the ACLU's status report on other cases, since the New York attorneys are involved in each of those cases, Oritt said.
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A change of names
They don't have the ring of "Liberty" or "Freedom."
But what they lack in drama they make up for in acceptability.
The American Civil Liberties Union is now calling the three anonymous plaintiffs in its abortion suit Jane L., Jane F., and Julie S.
Ant that's just fine with the state. When U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene ordered the ACLU in July to come up with pseudonyms less controversial than Jane Liberty, Jane Freedom and Julie Spouse, the ACLU simply substituted initials for the last names.Although the new names have shown up on court documents in recent weeks, ACLU spokeswoman Michele Parish said the names were just "working names" the ACLU used while the three anonymous women decided if they wanted other pseudonyms.