Key Takeaways

• On Oct. 24, the Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the state’s six-week abortion law.
• The court held that the law was constitutional at the time it was enacted in 2019 because it complies with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Overview

The Supreme Court of Georgia issued an opinion reversing the Superior Court of Fulton County’s 2022 ruling that Sections 4 and 11 of the Georgia LIFE Act (the Act) were void ab initio.

Procedural History

The superior court reasoned that controlling precedent required it to evaluate the Act based on the laws that existed in 2019, when the Act was signed into law. In 2019, it was unconstitutional for governments – federal, state or local – to ban abortions before viability. As a result, the superior court ruled that Sections 4 and 11 of the Act were unconstitutional when enacted; therefore, the Act was never a valid law. On Nov. 23, 2022, the Supreme Court of Georgia stayed the trial court’s order. The state filed a notice of appeal.

Supreme Court of Georgia’s Ruling

The court found “the holdings of United States Supreme Court cases interpreting the United States Constitution that have since been overruled cannot establish that a law was unconstitutional and therefore cannot render a law void ab initio.” The court reasoned that “the United States Constitution, not the United States Supreme Court, is the source of the Constitution’s meaning; the United States Supreme Court has no power to amend the Constitution through interpretation; and the text of the United States Constitution has not been amended since the LIFE Act was enacted. Thus, the United States Constitution means today what it meant when the LIFE Act was enacted in 2019, even if the United States Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution has changed.” The opinion further explains that Georgia courts must follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent precedent when determining whether a state law violates the Constitution. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs, abortion is no longer a constitutional right, and the Act complies with current law. As a result, the Act did not violate the Constitution when enacted in 2019.

The Supreme Court of Georgia’s full opinion can be read here.

Law clerk Nicole D. Katapodis assisted with the writing of this alert.

[View source.]