Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf
Page Number: 102

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

21 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

doctor  had  a  transfer  agreement  with  the  clinic.    Nor  did 
the District Court rely on that inference in finding that Doe 
5 exhibited good faith.  See 250 F. Supp. 3d, at 75–76.  And 
in any event, even if Doe 5 had a particularly strong reason
to hope that the doctor he asked  would agree to cover for
him, it hardly follows that other inquiries would necessarily 
fail. 

Doe 5 applied for privileges at two other area hospitals,
Lane  and  Baton  Rouge,  but  he  did  not  even  call  back  to
check  on  them  because  he  thought  his  “best  chances  for 
privileges [were] at Woman’s Hospital,” App. 1334, and he
noted that Lane and Baton Rouge require that their doctors 
treat some indigent patients “for free basically” while open-
ing themselves up to liability, id., at 1335.  Also, Doe 5 ex-
plained, Lane is “further away” from the Delta Clinic than
the other hospitals.  Ibid. 

To sum up Doe 5’s situation: The challenged law would 
have no effect on him if he could find a covering doctor in 
Baton Rouge, but he asked only one doctor.  He did little to 
pursue applications at two other hospitals because he was 
not  optimistic  about  his  chances  and  those  hospitals  re-
quired a certain amount of unpaid service to the poor. 

Doe 6.  Doe 6 is a Board-certified OB/GYN who practices
at Women’s Clinic in New Orleans.  There are nine qualify-
ing New Orleans-area hospitals, and according to his affi-
davit,  Doe  6  made  an  informal  inquiry  at  one  and  filed  a 
formal  application  at  another.    The  District  Court  found 
that he attempted in “good faith” to obtain admitting privi-
leges even though Doe 6 did not testify and was never sub-
jected to adversarial questioning.  The only relevant infor-
mation before the court were several paragraphs in Doe 6’s 
declaration, id., at 1307–1313, and hearsay in the declara-
tion of the Women’s Clinic administrator, id., at 1119–1131; 
see also 250 F. Supp. 3d, at 76–77. 

These  questionable  sources  left  many  important  ques-
tions unanswered, for example, why Doe 6 did not apply for