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 By a 3-0 vote, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a
challenge by eight voters to how the state counted ballots in the
election, one of Tennessee's costliest. The measure, known as
Amendment 1, won 53 percent of the vote.
Tuesday's decision by the Cincinnati-based appeals court overturned
a April 2016 lower court ruling ordering a recount. That ruling had
been put on hold pending the appeal.
The decision may also encourage the adoption in Tennessee of tighter
abortion restrictions, such as a 48-hour waiting period that
Republican Governor Bill Haslam signed into law in 2015.
Republicans have big majorities in both houses of Tennessee's
legislature.
Bill Harbison, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in a statement said his
clients were weighing their options.
"We continue to believe in the bedrock principle of one person, one
vote, and believe that the state's ratification scheme coupled with
certain actors' unprecedented effort to manipulate a result violated
that principle," Harbison said.
Circuit Judge David McKeague said opponents of Amendment 1 failed to
show how Tennessee harmed their due process and equal protection
rights, or diluted their votes relative to votes of abortion
opponents.
"This is not the 'exceptional case' that warrants federal
intervention in a lawful state election process," McKeague wrote.
"Although the subject of abortion rights will continue to be
controversial in Tennessee and across our nation, it is time for
uncertainty surrounding the people's 2014 approval and ratification
of Amendment 1 to be put to rest," he added.
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Amendment 1 said, "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects
a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion." It also
said elected officials may "enact, amend, or repeal statutes
regarding abortion."
The office of Tennessee Republican Attorney General Herbert Slatery
said it was gratified that the court found the vote-counting
"reasonable and true to the meaning of the Tennessee Constitution."
In ordering a recount, then-Chief Judge Kevin Sharp of the federal
court in Nashville called Tennessee's vote-counting "fundamentally
unfair." He also said it did not comply with a state constitutional
provision that it take into account the number of votes cast for
governor.
McKeague was appointed to the appeals court by President George W.
Bush. The other panel members, Richard Suhrheinrich and Ronald
Gilman, were appointed by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill
Clinton, respectively.
The case is George et al v Hargett et al, 6th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, No. 16-5563.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Leslie Adler)
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