ADF attorney available to media following ‘right of conscience’ hearing
Monday, July 07, 2008
WHO: ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley
WHAT: Answering questions from the media following oral arguments in Stormans v. Selecky
WHEN: Tuesday, July 8, following hearing, which begins at 9 a.m. PDT
WHERE: U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Park Place Building, 21st floor, 1200 Sixth Ave., Seattle
SEATTLE — ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley and ADF-allied attorney Kristen Waggoner will be available to answer questions from the media Tuesday following oral arguments in Stormans v. Selecky. ADF and allied attorneys with Ellis, Li & McKinstry filed the lawsuit in 2007 to safeguard the rights of pharmacists and pharmacies against newly-passed state regulations which forced them to stock or distribute abortion-inducing drugs regardless of their religious or moral opposition.
“Pharmacists and other health-care workers shouldn’t be punished for abiding by their beliefs. They should never be forced to abandon their pro-life convictions in order to appease a political agenda,” said Stanley. “No health care professional should be forced to participate in destroying human life to preserve his or her professional license.”
In November, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington issued a preliminary injunction against the state regulations while the lawsuit moves forward. Washington State Department of Health officials filed an appeal of the preliminary injunction and are asking the appeals court to overturn the injunction so the regulations stay in effect while the case is pending.
A fact sheet is available on the lawsuit here.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
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ABOUT Erik Stanley
Erik W. Stanley serves as senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund at its Kansas City Regional Service Center in Kansas, where he heads the ADF Pulpit Initiative to empower pastors across the nation to speak freely from their pulpits on all matters of life, including how Scripture and church teaching have application to candidates and elections. He has focused his practice on appellate law, free speech, traditional family values, pro-life, and religious liberty constitutional law. Stanley has filed, briefed, and argued numerous trial and appellate cases on constitutional issues throughout the United States. Stanley graduated from Temple University School of Law in the top five percent of his class and is a member of the Florida, Kansas, and the District of Columbia bars, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous federal district and appellate courts.