Nearly five weeks ago, lawyers representing Wyoming’s abortion providers sought an emergency court hearing to temporarily halt new restrictions that have effectively shut down Wyoming’s only abortion clinic.
That hearing has finally been set for next week. And when it happens, a new judge will oversee matters — the third jurist assigned to the case since it was first filed Feb. 28.
Documents filed last week in Natrona County District Court show the case is now assigned to a judge who retired from the bench last year: Thomas T.C. Campbell. The documents do not indicate a reason for the change, beyond stating that “good cause exists to assign [the case] to another judge to preside over all further proceedings.”
Before his retirement, Campbell had served as a district court judge in Laramie County. He will take over a case that was twice assigned to Natrona County District Judge Dan Forgey and once to Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens.
Opponents of Wyoming’s two recently passed abortion laws filed suit at the end of February in Natrona County District Court. They asked Forgey to pause enforcement of both laws — one instituted more regulations on clinics and the second mandated ultrasounds and a 48-hour waiting period — while the lawsuit proceeds.
Plaintiffs sought an emergency hearing and temporary restraining order, saying the more onerous regulations that came with requiring abortion clinics to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers forced the state’s lone facility — Wellspring Health Access in Casper — to stop offering services. In the first five business days after the law went into effect, the clinic said it referred 56 patients to other facilities for abortion-related care.
The plaintiffs say Forgey did not respond to their emergency request in a timely manner, prompting them to refile a nearly identical case in Teton County. While Natrona County is home to Wellspring, patients in Teton County use the clinic’s services, but have been turned away since the new laws went into effect, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
When the case moved to Teton County, it landed before Owens, who had presided over a legal challenge by the same group of plaintiffs to a pair of abortion bans passed by the Wyoming Legislature in 2023. Owens in November ruled those bans violated the state constitution, and that case is now before the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Attorneys for the state, who are tasked with defending the new abortion laws, challenged the move to Teton County, saying it amounted to “forum shopping,” the practice of filing a case with a court that a litigant believes will be more favorable to them. They also said Forgey couldn’t schedule the emergency hearing until he received proof that the defendants had been properly served.
In a hearing last month, Owens concluded the latest case belongs in Natrona County, where the lone clinic affected by the new laws operates. The plaintiffs quickly refiled the case there, where it was assigned again to Forgey on March 24, court records show. The following day, Wyoming Supreme Court Chief Justice Kate Fox requested the case be assigned to Campbell. That request did not explain the reassignment or why an outside judge was needed. Beside Forgey, three other district judges serve in Natrona County.
A hearing on whether to pause enforcement of the new abortion laws is now set for April 8 at the state courthouse in downtown Casper. Lawyers for the abortion providers say those laws — like the bans passed in 2023 — violate Wyomingites’ constitutional right to make their own health care decisions.
I find the idea that US Citizens think that they have the right to manage their neighbors womb really have not read or thought about what the Constitution and the Bill or Rights actually means. Those claiming such power will scream MURDER without understanding that they do not have to right to tell a Citizen whether they should bring a new Citizen into our Republic.
Once a kid is on the ground then we Citizens have the right to ask for it abide by the Common Defense and General Welfare laws we have passed. The country has been wrecked by those Citizens voting to end Roe as they advocated for corrupting our Republic. Read the 3rd Amendment and the 9th Amendment and then make the claim that Founders would have wanted to manage a womb as it is a ridiculous argument.
Sort of amazing that it is easier to impose the death penalty on an unborn baby than on a mass murderer.
I feel that the male part of the equation needs to be a part of any abortion. After all, it does take two.
Distinctly SEPARATE human beings with unique DNA, different from the mother or father, should not be allowed to have their lives ended because of their not being wanted by the person responsible for creating them.
Embryos.
Excellent example of dehumanization Gordon. It’s been used throughout history to rationalize the ending of human lives.
* posted under real name as wyofile’s arbitrary rules on anonymity dictate.
Ok, what’s the scoop? Who knows these judges?