June 27, 2024

Moyle (EMTALA) v. United States

The CBA joined an amicus brief in the above-styled matter, arguing that EMTALA was being used to preempt Idaho's pro-life legislation and created the risk of violating the conscience rights of Catholic personnel and hospitals forced to perform abortions in emergency rooms. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the Federal District Court on June 27. For an excellent analysis of the Court's Order, see two articles by Ed Whelan that appeared in the National Review (re-posted here with permission).

• Understanding the EMTALA Order—Background (Part 1)
  
• Understanding the EMTALA case - Alito on the Merits
  

June 19, 2024

Teresa Collett Comments on the U.S. Supreme Court Opinion in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

On June 13, 2024 the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, rejecting prolife doctors and medical organizations’ challenge to the FDA’s repeated narrowing of restrictions on the use and distribution of mifepristone (marketed under the brand name of Mifeprex), a drug used in medication abortions. The first page of the court’s opinion provides a brief history of the ever-shrinking regulation of the drug. Read the full article here.

May 17, 2024

The Catholic Bar Association Denounces the Biden Administration's Promotion of Abortion

As an organization that educates, organizes and inspires its members to uphold faithfully and bear witness to the Catholic Faith in the study and practice of the law, the Catholic Bar Association (CBA) objects to statements by political leaders and other high-profile persons, especially those claiming to be devout Catholics, that aggressively promote practices such as abortion and in vitro fertilization (“IVF”) that represent profound assaults on human dignity.

From its earliest days, the Catholic Church has taught, “You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.” (Didache 2,2) No one, under any circumstances, can claim the “right” to destroy an innocent human being. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, hereafter CCC, # 2258). Human life is to “be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.” (CCC #2270). Abortion is gravely contrary to the moral law (CCC #2271). IVF not only destroys the link between love and fertility in the marital act, but often results in the taking of human life and is also gravely sinful (CCC #s 2376, 2377).

Despite this clear teaching, President Joe Biden and his administration have aggressively promoted not just the legal permission to perform abortion and IVF, but the use of taxpayer dollars to fund both practices. In his 2024 State of the Union address, President Biden warned that the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the Alabama Supreme Court’s recognition that a child conceived in a test tube is a human being entitled to legal protections are among the greatest assaults on freedom and democracy since the Civil War. He exclaimed, “My God, what freedom else [sic] would you take away!” After the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a pre-Roe pro-life state law, Biden ran a 30-second commercial, promising women he “will fight like hell to get your freedom back” to abort their children. During an April 23, 2024 campaign rally focused on abortion rights, Biden made the Sign of the Cross, a gesture that several Catholic bishops rightly condemned as sacrilegious.

President Biden promised after the Dobbs decision that his administration would “do everything in his power” to promote abortions. Because Congress does not share his pro-abortion agenda, Biden has aggressively pushed abortions through regulatory action. A new rule under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has taken a law passed to support pregnant employees and twisted it into a requirement that employers accommodate abortions. The Biden administration has claimed that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) supersedes state laws limiting abortion. The FDA has likewise abandoned safety precautions that had heretofore accompanied the abortifacient drug mifepristone.

President Biden’s words and actions betray a fundamental misunderstanding of what human freedom means. Any claim of “right” or “freedom” must take into account the rights of others and respect for the common good. As the saying goes, “Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose.” But more importantly, rights must be grounded in the truths of the human person. Here, no one has a “right” to abortion or IVF and participating in either is not a proper exercise of freedom because both practices ignore the rights of the unborn child and the common good of society. Both abortion, which ends a human life, and IVF, which employs artificial means to initiate human life, treat unborn children like objects that adults can manipulate at will, not persons whose inherent dignity and inalienable rights we are bound to respect. Unfortunately, President Biden is not alone in these errors—his principal opponents in the upcoming presidential election have also expressed views with respect to IVF or abortion that are contrary to Church teaching on these matters.

Reasonable minds may differ concerning the government’s proper role in civil society, but all people of goodwill should be able to agree that the law must protect the most innocent and the most vulnerable and prevent the powerful from exploiting the weak. Heartfelt sympathy for the pain of infertility does not justify IVF. First, IVF does not treat or cure infertility. Second, IVF contradicts what reason demonstrates and what the Catholic Church teaches about the dignity of all human life, from conception to natural death. When self-identified Catholics, especially those who have been admitted to the Bar, pretend that these practices are the exercise of freedom, we in the Catholic Bar Association must raise our voices in protest as we do in this statement, which has been approved by a majority vote of our Directors. We also pray for the return of right reason to all in the public arena, whether self-proclaimed Catholics or otherwise, who would advance the pernicious practices of abortion and IVF under the false flags of liberty and freedom.

The Catholic Bar Association is a national organization of Catholic attorneys with members in 35 states. It is a tax-exempt organization recognized under § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; it neither endorses nor opposes any candidate for any political office.

February 5, 2024

CBA 2023 Speaker Named to U.S. Courts Post

Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr., a speaker at the CBA’s Annual Conference in Arlington, VA in October, 2023, has been appointed Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Judge Conrad currently serves as Senior Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. He is the author of the recently-published John Fisher and Thomas More: Keeping Their Souls While Losing Their Heads.

As Director of the Administrative Office, Judge Conrad will be the full-time chief administrative officer of the U.S. federal courts. In that capacity, he will manage the Administrative Office’s 1,000 employees and the provision of administrative support to the federal judiciary’s 2,400 judicial officers and 28,000 court employees, public defenders, and public defender employees. He will serve under the direction of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the principal policy-making body for the federal court system. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. made the appointment, effective March 1, 2024. The Chief Justice stated, “I welcome Judge Conrad to his new position. His long service to our branch in many important capacities makes him well-suited to lead the AO in tackling the issues that the Judiciary faces now and in the years ahead.”

In an engaging speech to CBA 2023, Judge Conrad, a longtime federal judge and former United States Attorney, drew on his extensive knowledge and research to tell the tale of the first great martyrs of the English Reformation and the habits of mind and spirit that formed them, including constant prayer, pursuit of excellence in their professions, intentionality in their vocations, and respect for human dignity.

The Catholic Bar Association extends its heartiest congratulations to Judge Conrad on this momentous appointment.

November 2, 2023

Lawyers discuss big gains for school choice nationwide at CBA 2023.

August 2023

CBA Immediate Past President spoke at the 2023 Speculum Iustitiae Conference

Peter H. Wickersham, as Immediate Past President of the Catholic Bar Association, recently had the singular privilege of speaking at the 2023 Speculum Iustitiae Conference of Canon and Civil Lawyers hosted by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke at the beautiful Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin.  In addition to Cardinal Burke, the other speakers included: The Most Reverend Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco; Dr. William Daniel, JCD, Professor in the School of Canon Law at the Catholic University of America; and Reverend Réginald-Marie Rivoire, F.S.V.F., Defender of the Bond and Promoter of Justice at the ecclesiastical Tribunal of Rennes.  A nearly twenty-five year health care attorney, Peter presented on the topic, “Dishonorable Disobedience or Conscientious Objection: Defending Conscience Rights in the New Health Care Paradigm.”  More information about the 2023 Conference can be found at www.speculumiustitiae.com

June 22, 2023

CBA Local Affiliate in the News

In an article discussing the double role of St. Thomas More as the patron saint of statesmen and others working in the political and legal fields as well as the patron saint of the Diocese of Arlington, Jonathan Liedl talks with local CBA Affiliate President Mattias Caro. Read the full article here.

June 19, 2023

David K. DeWolf Appointed President-Elect of the Catholic Bar Association

The Board of Directors of the Catholic Bar Association has voted unanimously to appoint CBA Board Member David K. DeWolf of Spokane Valley, Washington, as President Elect. He fills the vacancy created by the resignation of Dr. Charles R. Helms of Dallas, Texas, who stepped away for personal reasons. Dr. Helms remains an active member of the CBA’s Board of Directors and Chair of the Education Committee.

A founding member and early supporter of the Association, Professor DeWolf was elected to the Board during the October 2022 General Assembly and has served as Chair of our Advocacy Committee. He is Professor Emeritus of Gonzaga School of Law, a graduate of Yale Law School, a member of the State of Washington Bar, and a member of the Albrecht Law Firm. He is a leading expert on tort law in Washington and the co-author of Washington Tort Law & Practice. Professor DeWolf and his wife, Priscilla, are members of Mary Queen Parish in Spokane.

In addition to his service to the CBA, Professor DeWolf serves on the Board of the Chesterton Academy of Notre Dame and is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. The Catholic Bar Association is a community of legal professionals that educates, organizes and inspires its members to faithfully uphold and bear witness to the Catholic Faith in the study and practice of the law.

April 19, 2023

The Catholic Bar Association joins Amicus Brief in the Supreme Court in support of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

Read the Amicus Curiae brief of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, to which the CBA joined.

Read the Press Release from the Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance.

February 13, 2023

CBA joins a friend-of-the-court brief in support of lawsuit to hold FDA accountable for illegally approving RU486

The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and others, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), recently sued the federal Food and Drug Administration in Texas challenging its approval of the abortifacient mifepristone (proprietary trade name "RU486"). AHM moved for a preliminary injunction asking the Court to order the FDA to withdraw its approval of mifepristone. 

The suit and motion ask the court to recognize the profound legal and ethical consequences of the FDA’s improvident and illegal approval of chemical abortion drugs, and in particular its failure to implement or enforce safeguards necessary to ensure adequate, informed consent for women who use such drugs.

The CBA joined an amicus brief supporting Plaintiff's Complaint and the Motion for Preliminary Injunction.  We joined in the Amicus Brief as part of the Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance, of which the CBA is a founding member, and in our own right.

On February 14 at 1:00 pm ET/ 10:00 am PT, ADF Senior Counsel Erik Baptist will discuss the lawsuit in a Teleforum featuring a 20-30 minute discussion followed by brief Q&A.  

Usually, one must be affiliated with the ADF to view its teleforums, but our friends at the ADF will permit CBA members to view the presentation without joining (although you might consider joining the cost-free network!). You may register for tomorrow's Teleforum HERE. (Select "Other ADF Affiliation")

ADF's press release is set forth here.
Read the complaint on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.
Read the Amicus Curiae brief of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, to which the CBA joined.

October 15, 2022

Homily of Archbishop Joseph Naumann

on the occasion of the Catholic Bar Association Mass

Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Year C

Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dallas Texas

Thank you for your invitation to be the homilist at the CBA Red Mass being celebrated on this 29^th Sunday of the Liturgical Year.  It is a privilege to be with you.  I am very grateful for the Catholic Bar Association.  This is such an important and necessary organization for the Church in the United States.  I am grateful to the leaders and all who worked hard to begin this Association and work hard to make it grow.

God definitely has a sense of humor.  What are the chances that the Red Mass for the Catholic Bar Association would coincide with the liturgical calendar’s selection for tonight’s Gospel featuring what is sometimes referred to as the Parable of the Corrupt Judge?  Fortunately, we do not have any of those in the 21^st Century USA Courts.  When I was involved in planning Red Masses many years ago, I was always told the key to a successful turn out of attorneys for a Red Mass was to get as many Judges as possible to attend.

Continue reading

September 20, 2022

CBA Founding President Joshua McCaig Published in The Federalist

The Catholic Bar Association’s Founding President, Joshua McCaig, has published an article on The Federalist website.  The article, which is dated September 20, 2022 and entitled “Biden Admin Silently Erases ‘Unborn Child’ In Legal Argument Pushing Abortion On Religious Medical Workers,” details the efforts of the Biden Administration to compel emergency healthcare workers to participate in elective abortion procedures by ignoring clear language of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (“EMTALA”) which specifically safeguards the health and safety of  an unborn child whose mother presents to an emergency facility.  McCaig outlines the efforts of medical and religious societies and State governments to counteract the Administration’s misleading guidance concerning EMTALA’s requirements.    

August 23, 2022

Federal District Judge denies Motion to Dismiss and issues a Preliminary Injunction in State of Texas v. Becerra

Judge Hendrix of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued an Order on Tuesday, August 23, 2022, denying Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss and imposing a Preliminary Injunction in the case of State of Texas v. Becerra.  The case pertains to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra’s guidance to providers, issued in the aftermath of the SCOTUS decision in Dobbs, suggesting that elective abortion could be mandatory emergency or stabilizing care under the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA), regardless of state law.  The State of Texas filed suit seeking to prevent enforcement of the HHS guidance in the State.  The Catholic Healthcare Leadership Alliance (CHCLA), of which the Catholic Bar Association (CBA) is a Founding Member, filed an Amicus Curiae brief that was mentioned in the Judge’s Order.  The CBA’s Founding President, Joshua McCaig, was instrumental in the preparation and filing of the brief. 

The CHCLA's press release is set forth here.

Read the Judge's Order.

Read the Amicus Curiae brief.

June 24, 2022

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Re: The Catholic Bar Association Congratulates the Supreme Court on Its Dobbs Decision

   With its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the United States Supreme Court has overturned its illegitimate fifty-year-old opinion, Roe v. Wade. In doing so, the Court has moved the American legal system back toward being a system of law and not of men.

   Roe was illegitimate because it had no basis in law. It was the creation of a majority of the Justices who had a pro-abortion policy objective. As one “pro-choice” Yale Law School professor put it, Roe “…is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be.” Roe was an attempt to impose a judicial solution for a perceived social and political problem by the invention of a right to abortion that had no support in the Constitution or in American law. The country is well-rid of it. Thus, as conscientious lawyers, we applaud the Dobbs decision as the long-awaited overturning of a dreadful legal decision.

   Moreover, as Catholics, we applaud the effect the decision will have in reducing the frequency of elective abortions in the United States. “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law….” ¶2271 Catechism of the Catholic Church.

   The Roe decision authorized the establishment of one of the most permissive abortion regimes in the world under which even a human being capable of life outside of his mother’s womb could be killed legally. The issue is now returned to the political process, where it should have been all along.

   Just as the issuance of the Roe decision fifty years ago represented an assault on our legal system, so too does the “leaking” of a draft of the Dobbs decision months before the decision was officially issued by the Court. A probable purpose for the leak was to bring public pressure to bear on enough Justices to change the outcome of the case. This purpose has been borne out in the loud, illegal demonstrations outside of the homes of Justices who appeared to favor overturning Roe. They and their families have been made to feel unsafe in their own homes. When the Roe majority abandoned the judicial function for a legislative one, abortion supporters learned that ignoring the law is acceptable to achieve desired political ends.

   The leaking of the draft opinion was deplorable and subversive of the judicial process, as are the demonstrations at the homes of Justices of the Supreme Court, and should be condemned by people of good will.

   The high court should be commended for finally righting a terrible moral and historical wrong. An untold number of innocent human lives will be spared as a result. Laws protecting innocent human life should be passed and enforced. And we call upon those in authority to enforce laws already on the books to protect judges and juries against violence.

   The Catholic Bar Association is a national community of legal professionals that educates, organizes and inspires its members faithfully to uphold and bear witness to the Catholic Faith in the study and practice of the law.

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Media Contact:
Peter Wickersham

Email: info _at_ catholicbar.org