The Supreme Court today lifted a stay it imposed last month on the prosecution of two anti-abortion activists who, according to a news report, “are charged by the California Attorney General’s Office with secretly filming abortion clinicians and biotech company employees without their permission at meetings in San Francisco, Los Angeles County and El Dorado County in 2014 and 2015.”
In Merritt v. Superior Court, the defendants sought recusal of Attorney General Xavier Becerra, claiming he “improperly chose his loyalty to Planned Parenthood over proceeding fairly.” After the summary denial of a writ petition by the Court of Appeal, the defendants petitioned the Supreme Court for review on a Friday, seeking to halt a preliminary hearing scheduled to start the following Monday. The Supreme Court issued a stay the same day “to permit consideration of the petition for review.” The court today denied the petition and dissolved the stay.
