Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf
Page Number: 101.0

20 

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

ALITO, J., dissenting 

with  the  conduct  of  a  person  who  really  wanted  to  get 
privileges. 

Doe 5.  Doe 5 is an OB/GYN who performs abortions at 
Women’s Clinic in New Orleans and Delta Clinic in Baton 
Rouge.  Doe  5  did  not  testify  at  the  hearing  in  District
Court,  but  the  District  Court  found  that  he  proceeded  in 
“good faith” based on a declaration and the transcript of a 
deposition.  250 F. Supp. 3d, at 75–76.

Doe 5 obtained courtesy privileges at Touro Hospital in
New  Orleans,  see  App.  1401,  and  therefore  all  agree  that
Act 620 would not prevent him from practicing at Women’s
Clinic, id., at 1397.  The remaining question is whether the 
law  would  bar  him  from  performing  abortions  in  Baton 
Rouge.

Doe 5 could continue to do that if one hospital in that area
granted him admitting privileges, and Doe 5 testified that
one,  Woman’s  Hospital,  will  grant  him  privileges  once  he
finds  a  doctor  who  is  willing  to  cover  him  when  he  is  not 
available.  See id., at 1334.  Doe 5 asked exactly one doctor
to serve as his covering physician.  That does not show that 
he “could not find a covering physician,” ante,  at 23, if he 
made other inquiries.

The plurality justifies Doe 5’s meager effort based on pure
speculation.    Because  the  one  doctor  Doe  5  asked  had  a 
transfer  agreement  with  the  Baton  Rouge  abortion  clinic,
the  plurality  reasons  that  “Doe  5  could  have  reasonably 
thought that, if this doctor wouldn’t serve as his covering 
physician, no one would.”  Ante, at 28.  The plurality goes 
on to say that “it was well within the District Court’s dis-
cretion to credit that reading of the record.”  Ibid. 

This argument shows how far the plurality is willing to 
go to strike down the Louisiana law.  The plurality relies on 
speculation  about  why  Doe  5  made  only  one  inquiry  and 
why the District Court found this one inquiry sufficient.  In 
fact, however, Doe 5 never explained why he asked only one 
doctor, and he never intimated that he gave up because that