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Left: A detail view of a Planned Parenthood sign is displayed on a building, Saturday, May 14, 2022, in Houston. (Aaron M. Sprecher via AP) Right: Matthew Kacsmaryk listens during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Dec. 13, 2017 (Senate Judiciary Committee via AP).
A federal appeals court has overturned a ruling against Planned Parenthood by the divisive Texas judge known for his anti-abortion and anti-LGBT rulings.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Wednesday in the case of Doe v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America that an anti-abortion group cannot bring a claim based on the actions of Planned Parenthood’s attorneys.
The underlying lawsuit, backed by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and deemed “meritless” by many legal experts, alleges that Planned Parenthood and its Texas and Louisiana affiliates defrauded Medicaid. The plaintiff, an anonymous anti-abortion activist, seeks to have Planned Parenthood return millions of dollars in funding it received from Medicaid that was used to provide services to low income patients. It also seeks billions of dollars in damages.
The impetus for the case was a 2016 debunked and misleading video made by an anti-abortion group that purported to prove that Planned Parenthood was selling aborted fetal tissue. Planned Parenthood has consistently denied wrongdoing, and has characterized the litigation as a politically-motivated attempt to send the organization into financial ruin.
Years of litigation ensued, much of it over whether Planned Parenthood can remain part of Texas and Louisiana’s Medicaid program. Currently, the organization is still part of Louisiana’s Medicaid program, but is not part of the Texas program.
In 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that Planned Parenthood had to return millions in funding it received from Texas and Louisiana’s Medicaid programs and used to provide services to low-income patients. Kacsmaryk is the Donald Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas who unilaterally ordered the FDA to revoke approval of abortion drug mifepristone. He is also the only federal judge sitting in the Northern District of Texas, which appears to have led several anti-abortion groups to strategically file cases in Amarillo and be rewarded with favorable rulings by Kacsmaryk — many of which were later reversed by the Fifth Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court.
A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit reversed Kacsmaryk’s ruling Wednesday, holding that a third party does not have a valid legal claim against attorneys for advice they gave to their own clients. The panel consisted of U.S. Circuit Judge Rhesa Barksdale, George H.W. Bush appointee, U.S. Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick, George W. Bush appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge James Graves Jr., Barack Obama appointee.
The judges found that there are existing guardrails to ensure that attorneys do not act illegally or unethically in their practice.
“[T]he safeguards built into the judicial process police the conduct of private attorneys as much as (if not more than) prosecutors,” the ruling said. “As with prosecutors, the assertions of private attorneys are contested by their adversaries. Private attorneys are also held to a code of ethics, for which violations are subject to sanctions from the Bar or from the presiding judge in the given case. And (unlike prosecutors), private attorneys are subject to malpractice suits from their own clients and loss of business if they act unethically when performing advocacy functions.”
As such, the judges found, Planned Parenthood’s attorneys are deemed “absolutely immune” from the plaintiff’s claims in this case — although, the ruling notes, there is at least one caveat.
“We make clear that our holding is a narrow one,” the judges wrote. “Private attorneys are immune from claims filed by third parties for their activities as advocates. Of course, private attorneys are not immune from suit for actions filed by their own clients, nor are they immune from suit for activities unrelated to their advocacy.”
Susan Manning, general counsel, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, issued the following statement Wednesday:
This politically-motivated case was brought by anti-abortion lawmakers and an anonymous plaintiff to weaponize the law. This baseless case has only one goal: to shut down Planned Parenthood and deny patients access to sexual and reproductive health care. Planned Parenthood health centers are nonprofits that provide essential, high-quality health care to more than 2 million people nationwide every year.
The three-judge panel followed the law and the facts to reach their decision. We look forward to having our day in court where we expect to be vindicated.
The case will now returns to the district court and Kacsmaryk for further proceedings.
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