Lambert v. Wicklund

• Decision Date: 31 March 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-858.,96-858.
• Parties: LAMBERT, GALLATIN COUNTY ATTORNEY v. WICKLUND et al.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

520 U.S. 292

LAMBERT, GALLATIN COUNTY ATTORNEY v. WICKLUND et al.

No. 96-858.

United States Supreme Court.

Decided March 31, 1997.

ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

Per Curiam.

Before a minor has an abortion in Montana, one of her parents must be notified. A waiver, or "judicial bypass," of the notification requirement is allowed if the minor can convince a court that notification would not be in her best interests. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down Montana's parental notification law as unconstitutional, holding that the judicial bypass did not sufficiently protect the right of minors to have an abortion. Because the Ninth Circuit's holding is in direct conflict with our precedents, we grant the petition for a writ of certiorari and reverse.

In 1995, Montana enacted the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. The Act prohibits a physician from performing an abortion on a minor unless the physician has notified one of the minor's parents or the minor's legal guardian 48 hours in advance. Mont. Code Ann. § 50-20-204 (1995).¹ However, an "unemancipated" minor² may petition the state youth court to waive the notification requirement, pursuant to the statute's "judicial bypass" provision. § 50-20-212 (quoted in full in an appendix to this opinion). The provision gives the minor a right to court-appointed counsel, and guarantees expeditious handling of the minor's petition (since the petition is automatically granted if the youth court fails to rule on the petition within 48 hours from the time it is filed). §§ 50— 20-212(2)(a), (3). The minor's identity remains anonymous, and the proceedings and related documents are kept confidential. § 50-20-212(3).

If the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that any of the following three conditions are met, it must grant the petition and waive the notice requirement: (i) the minor is "sufficiently mature to decide whether to have an abortion"; (ii) "there is evidence of a pattern of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse" of the minor by one of her parents, a guardian, or a custodian; or (iii) "the notification of a parent or guardian is not in the best interests of the minor." §§ 50-20-212(4), (5) (emphasis added). It is this third condition which is at issue here.

Before the Act's effective date, respondents—several physicians who perform abortions, and other medical personnel—filed a complaint seeking a declaration that the Act was unconstitutional and an order enjoining its enforcement. The District Court for the District of Montana, addressing only one of respondents' arguments, held that the Act was unconstitutional because the third condition set out above was too narrow. According to the District Court, our precedents require that judicial bypass mechanisms authorize waiver of the notice requirement whenever "the abortion would be in the minor's best interests," not just when "notification would not be in the minor's best interests." App. to Pet. for Cert. 17a (emphasis in original) (citing Bellotti v. Baird, 443 U. S. 622, 640-642 (1979) (plurality opinion)). Three days before the Act was to go into effect, the District Court enjoined its enforcement.

The Court of Appeals affirmed, stating that it was bound by its prior decision in Glick v. McKay, 937 F. 2d 434 (CA9 1991). See Wicklund v. Salvagni, 93 F. 3d 567, 571-572 (CA9 1996). Glick struck down Nevada's parental notification statute which, like Montana's statute here, allowed a minor to bypass the notification requirement if a court determined that the notification would not be in the minor's best interests. The court's conclusion was based on its analysis of our decisions in Bellotti v. Baird, supra, and Ohio v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, 497 U. S. 502 (1990).

In Bellotti, we struck down a statute requiring a minor to obtain the consent of both parents before having an abortion, subject to a judicial bypass provision, because the judicial bypass provision was too restrictive, unconstitutionally burdening a minor's right to an abortion. 443 U. S., at 647 (plurality opinion); id., at 655-656 (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment). The Court's principal opinion explained that a constitutional parental consent statute must contain a bypass provision that meets four criteria: (i) allow the minor to bypass the consent requirement if she establishes that she is mature enough and well enough informed to make the abortion decision independently; (ii) allow the minor to bypass the consent requirement if she establishes that the abortion would be in her best interests; (iii) ensure the minor's anonymity; and (iv) provide for expeditious bypass procedures. Id., at 643-644 (plurality opinion). See also Akron, 497 U. S., at 511-513 (restating the four requirements).

In Akron, we upheld a statute requiring a minor to notify one parent before having an abortion, subject to a judicial bypass provision. We declined to decide whether a parental notification statute must include some sort of bypass provision to be constitutional. Id., at 510. Instead, we held that this bypass provision satisfied the four Bellotti criteria required for bypass provisions in parental consent statutes, and that a fortiori it satisfied any criteria that might be required for bypass provisions in parental notification statutes. Critically for the case now before us, the judicial bypass provision we examined in Akron was substantively indistinguishable from both the Montana judicial bypass provision at issue here and the Nevada provision at issue in Glick. See 497 U. S., at 508 (summarizing Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 2151.85 (1995)). The judicial bypass provision in Akron allowed a court to waive the notification requirement if it determined by clear and convincing evidence "that notice is not in the minor's best interests" (not that an abortion is in her best interests). 497 U. S., at 508 (emphasis added) (citing § 2151.85(A)(4)). And we explicitly held that this provision satisfied the second Bellotti requirement, that "the procedure must allow the minor to show that, even if she cannot make the abortion decision by herself, `the desired abortion would be in her best interests.' " 497 U. S., at 511 (quoting Bellotti, supra, at 644).

Despite the fact that Akron involved a parental notification statute, and Bellotti involved a parental consent statute;³ despite the fact that Akron involved a statute virtually identical to the Nevada statute at issue in Glick; and despite the fact that Akron explicitly held that the statute met all of the Bellotti requirements, the Ninth Circuit in Glick struck down Nevada's parental notification statute as inconsistent with Bellotti:

"Rather than requiring the reviewing court to consider the minor's `best interests' generally, the Nevada statute requires the consideration of "best interests" only with respect to the possible consequences of parental notification. The best interests of a minor female in obtaining an abortion may encompass far more than her interests in not notifying a parent of the abortion decision. Furthermore, in Bellotti, the court expressly stated, `if, all things considered, the court determines that an abortion is in the minor's best interests, she is entitled to court authorization without any parental involvement.' Bellotti, 443 U. S. at 648 (emphasis added). Therefore, the Nevada statute impermissibly narrows the Bellotti `best interests' criterion, and is unconstitutional." 937 F. 2d, at 439.

Based entirely on Glick, the Ninth Circuit in this case affirmed the District Court's ruling that the Montana statute is unconstitutional, since the statute allows waiver of the notification requirement only if the youth court determines that notification—not the abortion itself—is not in the minor's best interests. 93 F. 3d, at 572.

As should be evident from the foregoing, this decision simply cannot be squared with our decision in Akron. The Ohio parental notification statute at issue there was indistinguishable in any relevant way from the Montana statute at issue here. Both allow for judicial bypass if the minor shows that parental notification is not in her best interests. We asked in Akron whether this met the Bellotti requirement that the minor be allowed to show that "the desired abortion would be in her best interests." We explicitly held that it did. 497 U. S., at 511. Thus, the Montana statute meets this requirement, too. In concluding otherwise, the Ninth Circuit was mistaken.

Respondents (as did the Ninth Circuit in Glick ) place great emphasis on our statement in Akron, that "the statute requires the juvenile court to authorize the minor's consent where the court determines that the abortion is in the minor's best interest." 497 U. S., at 511 (emphasis added) (citing Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 2151.85(C)(2) (Supp. 1988)). But since we had clearly stated that the statute actually required such authorization only when the court determined that notification would not be in the minor's best interests, it is wrong to take our statement to imply that the statute said otherwise. Rather, underlying our statement was an assumption that a judicial bypass procedure requiring a minor to show that parental notification is not in her best interests is equivalent to a judicial bypass procedure requiring a minor to show that abortion without notification is in her best interests, as the context of the opinion, the statutory language, and the concurring opinion all make clear.⁴

Respondents, echoing the Ninth Circuit in Glick, claim that there is a constitutionally significant distinction between requiring a minor to show that parental notification is not in her best interests, and requiring a minor to show that an abortion (without such notification) is in her best interests. See Brief in Opposition 12-13; 937 F. 2d, at 438-439. But the Montana statute draws no such distinction, and respondents cite no...