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Page Number: 31

26 

JUNE MEDICAL SERVICES L. L. C. v. RUSSO 

Opinion of BREYER, J. 

Ethical and Religious Directives to which the hospital sub-
scribes “shall be engaged in by any Medical Staff appointee 
or  any  other  person  exercising  clinical  privileges  at  the
Health System.”  App. 1180.  These directives provide that 
abortion “is never permitted.”  Id., at 1205.  And they warn 
against “the danger of scandal in any association with abor-
tion providers.”  Ibid. 

The State suggests that the Court of Appeals, in speaking 
of a “contradic[tion],” was referring to the fact that Doe 3
had  admitting  privileges  at  Christus,  as  had  Doe  2  at  an
earlier time.  Brief for Respondent 75.  Doe 3 testified, how-
ever,  that  he  did  not  know  whether  Christus  was  “aware 
that I was performing abortions” and that he did not “feel 
like  testing  the  waters  there”—i.e.,  by  “asking  [Christus]
how they would feel” if they were aware that he “was per-
forming abortions.”  App. 273.  And nothing in the record
suggests that Christus, 10 years earlier, was aware of Doe
2’s  connection  with  abortion.    JUSTICE  ALITO  imagines  a 
number of ways that Christus may have become aware of
Doe 2 or Doe 3’s abortion practice.  See post, at 17–18, and 
n. 10 (dissenting opinion).  The State apparently did not see 
fit to test these theories or probe the doctors’ accounts on
cross-examination, however.  And the District Court’s find-
ing of good faith is plainly permissible on the record before 
us. 

Finally, the Court of Appeals faulted Doe 2 for failing to
apply  to  Minden  Hospital.  The  record  also  explains  that 
decision.  Minden subjects all new appointees to “not less
than” six months of “focused professional practice evalua-
tion.”  Record 9281; see also id., at 9252.  That evaluation 
requires an assessment of the provider’s in-hospital work. 
See supra,  at 22.  Doe 2 could not meet that requirement
because,  as  we  have  said,  Doe  2  does  not  do  in-hospital 
work,  and  only  two  of  his  patients  in  the  past  five  years 
have required hospitalization.  App. 400.  Moreover, Min-
den’s  bylaws  express  a  preference  for  applicants  whom