Sandra Merritt Case Filed at the Supreme Court

If not overturned, this terrible ruling will have far-reaching impact on undercover journalism.

In 2019, a San Francisco judge who refused to recuse himself from our case representing Sandra Merritt awarded millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood. In doing so, the court’s decision eviscerated the First Amendment, and, if not overturned, will have a far-reaching impact on undercover journalism.

This case has attracted national attention and could set a major national precedent.

TODAY, Liberty Counsel filed our final reply with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the Justices to review an activist Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision against the grandmother whose undercover investigation and reporting revealed the gruesome baby organ harvesting industry.

The interviews Sandra recorded resulted in prosecution of organ procurement companies, federal congressional hearings, and the passage of laws by Texas to stop this horror. But instead of Planned Parenthood being prosecuted, Sandra now faces financial ruin if this terrible ruling is not reversed

In 2015, Sandra Merritt and David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, released videos exposing illegal trade in aborted baby body parts, after a 30-month undercover operation.

The videos showed Planned Parenthood executives haggling over prices of aborted baby body parts, with one Planned Parenthood doctor insisting she needed higher prices for baby body parts because she wanted to buy a Lamborghini.

Other videos exposed Planned Parenthood doctors detailing in their own words how they illegally changed abortion procedures, threatening the mother’s life and health, all so they could “procure” better intact baby parts to command higher prices.

Yet other videos detailed how some abortionists purposefully and illegally delivered fully intact LIVING babies, then dissected those precious children ALIVE because organs procured intact are more valuable.

In short, Sandra exposed Planned Parenthood and the organ companies for illegal activities and for slicing and dicing fully living human children like they were little more than sides of beef.

What Sandra exposed is morally wrong and decidedly illegal. But Planned Parenthood has powerful friends, not the least of which are Vice President Kamala Harris and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, not to mention a judge who should have recused himself.

The original case was heard by San Francisco’s U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick III, who was associated with the Good Samaritan Family Resource Center that houses the Planned Parenthood of Northern California facility in its complex.

In 2017, Orrick refused to recuse himself from the case. Instead, Judge Orrick severely restricted the evidence, and at the end of a six-week trial, gave instructions to the jury on how they should rule on critical issues.

Based on Orrick’s instructions, the jury had little choice but to rule in favor of the abortion giant on each count, including additional penalties under the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) designation, and awarded more than 2 million dollars in damages. The court subsequently awarded Planned Parenthood nearly 14 million in attorney’s fees and costs, slapping the brave grandmother turned undercover journalist with a total judgment of over 16 million dollars.

In October 2022, a three-member panel of the Ninth Circuit upheld numerous errors of the trial court, including:

(1) Awarding Planned Parenthood millions of dollars in “damages” involving publication of Planned Parenthood’s own words.

(2) Use of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to punish constitutionally protected speech.

(3) Awarding planned “damages” involving legally recorded conversations without allowing the jury to hear those conversations.

On behalf of Sandra, we are now asking the Supreme Court to undo the blatant injustice of this case. Every journalist and person who values free speech and a free press should be concerned with the implications of this case. We will fight for the free speech rights of all people.

To learn more about Sandra’s case, click HERE.