Gainesville Woman Care, LLC v. State
Annotate this CaseIn 2015, the Florida Legislature amended the Woman’s Right to Know Act. The amendments constituted the Mandatory Delay Law (the Law), which imposes an additional twenty-four hour waiting period on women seeking to terminate their pregnancies. Petitioners filed a complaint challenging the validity of the Law as a violation of, inter alia, the constitutional privacy rights of Florida women. Petitioners then filed a motion for a temporary injunction grounded on the right of privacy challenge set forth in their complaint. The trial court issued an order granting Petitioners' request for a temporary injunction, finding that the Law infringed Florida women’s fundamental right of privacy. Accordingly, the court applied the strict scrutiny standard of review. The First District Court of Appeal overturned the trial court’s order granting the temporary injunction. The Supreme Court quashed the First District’s decision, holding (1) the trial court properly applied strict scrutiny when reviewing the Law; (2) the First District misapplied and misconstrued Supreme Court precedent by placing the initial evidentiary burden on Petitioners to prove a significant restriction on Florida’s constitutional right of privacy before subjecting the Law to strict scrutiny; and (3) the trial court correctly found that Petitioner established a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.