Yesterday’s NYTimes piece on some judges recusing themselves from parental-notification cases

A pregnant teenager went to the grand and imposing county courthouse here early in the summer, saying she wanted an abortion. The circuit court judge refused to hear the case, and he announced that he would recuse himself from any others like it.

"Taking the life of an innocent human being is contrary to the moral order," the judge, John R. McCarroll of Shelby County Circuit Court, wrote in June. "I could not in good conscience make a finding that would allow the minor to proceed with the abortion."

The teenager was in court because Tennessee, like 18 other states, requires minors to obtain a parent’s permission before they can have an abortion.

But the state also allows another option. The teenagers can ask a judge for permission to decide for themselves.

Judges, however, are starting to opt out. Other judges of the Shelby Circuit Court have recused themselves like Judge McCarroll, and now, according to one judge, only four of the nine judges on the court hear such abortion applications.

A couple of comments at Mirror of Justice, including this one:

It appears that the minor for one reason or another chooses not to seek parental permission. Her option is to ask a judge. What if the judge accepts the case but denies permission? Will the twelve experts who wrote to the State Supreme Court complaining about Judge McCarroll’s “lawless” actions be satisfied? Will Mr. Chase, the president of Memphis Regional Planned Parenthood then have a motive to evaluate judicial activities? Recalling Prof. Silverstein’s research on how parental consent laws operate, is the judge who decides the case in accordance with the law but denies permission still lawless? I wonder if those who advocate abortion “rights” for minor children will be satisfied with laws under which judges, acting under the State law, withhold permission for abortions? Is the only “lawful” result the type of decision that Judge Bailey renders? These are interesting and important issues that warrant careful and continuing study.