Opinion ID: 763594
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The twenty-four hour appeal provision

Text: 20 Under the Act, if the juvenile court rules within forty-eight hours of the filing of the minor's bypass petition, a notice of appeal must be filed within twenty-four hours of the decision of the juvenile court. If the juvenile court does not rule within forty-eight hours, the petition is deemed denied, and the minor may appeal at any time. TCA § 37-10-304(d), (g). The twenty-four hours begins to run from the time of the juvenile court's decision, not from the time the minor receives notice of the ruling. TCA § 37-10-304(g). The district court concluded that MPP likely could prove that the notice of appeal provision imposes an undue burden on the minor seeking an abortion because it impermissibly shifts to the pregnant minor the burden of acting expeditiously. MPP argues that the twenty-four hour provision burdens a minor seeking judicial bypass because it creates logistical problems for her in the form of making telephone calls during a particular time and forcing her to return to the courthouse to file the notice of appeal within a short time-frame. 21 We believe that the twenty-four hour appeal provision does not place an undue burden upon a minor's ability to pursue a judicial bypass. First, Tenn.R.App.Proc. 4(d) allows civil litigants to file notices of appeal in advance. 2 Thus, a minor may file a notice of appeal at the conclusion of the hearing on her petition while already at the courthouse. See Gaskill v. Gaskill, 936 S.W.2d 626, 630 n. 4 (Tenn.Ct.App.1996) (notice filed prematurely provides adequate notice to adverse party under Tenn.R.App.Proc. 4(d)). Additionally, if she has a lawyer, Tennessee's Notice of Appeal form does not exclude advance authorization of an appeal. Tenn.R.App.Proc., app. A., Form 1 (Michie 1999). She may authorize an appeal, leaving the date of the decision blank, and instruct her lawyer to file the notice when the decision is rendered. The ability to arrange for an appeal in advance of a decision by the court, either through her lawyer or by filing a notice of appeal prematurely, greatly alleviates the need to be in contact with and return to the court. 22 Second, should the minor not arrange for an appeal in advance of the juvenile court's decision, the window of time within which the minor must remain in contact with the court is only forty-eight hours. If within forty-eight hours of filing her petition she has not heard otherwise, she knows her petition has been denied and may appeal at any time. Although we recognize that making phone calls may raise some difficulties for a minor attempting to act in secret, such a burden cannot be characterized as substantial, particularly where the phone calls need only be made over a forty-eight hour period. 23 Third, the juvenile court is required to advise the minor that she has the right to court-appointed counsel, and the state is required to provide a court-appointed advocate in each judicial district to give information regarding the legal process to the minor and to coordinate with the court-appointed counsel. TCA § 37-10-304(c)(1). These provisions assure a minor access to assistance in navigating the appeals process. Also, the clerk of the court has the responsibility of notifying the minor of the court's decision by delivering a copy of the order to the minor's attorney. Rule 24(10). Court-appointed counsel would have a professional obligation to stay in touch with the juvenile court during the brief forty-eight hour time period during which it could render a decision to insure that a notice of appeal is timely. Furthermore, since the lawyer would be attending the hearing with the minor, in order to expedite the process she could be asked then whether she wanted to appeal if she lost. Lastly, the appeal provision expedites the judicial bypass process and thereby serves the significant state interest in protecting the health of the minor because, as MPP itself notes, the longer the minor must wait to have an abortion, the greater her health risks become. 24 A similar twenty-four hour appeal provision was upheld in Manning v. Hunt, 119 F.3d 254 (4th Cir.1997). There the court ruled that a twenty-four hour appeal provision found in a North Carolina bypass procedure was not an undue burden, in part because that statute, like the Tennessee Consent Act, required the state to provide court-appointed counsel at the minor's request. Id. at 275. Although the statute in Manning, unlike the Tennessee Consent Act, required the North Carolina district courts to make a decision at the conclusion of the initial hearing, thereby foreclosing any logistical problems in learning of the court's decision, this difference does not tip the scales in favor of unconstitutionality in view of the safeguards provided by the Tennessee procedure. In addition, Rule 24(11)(d) states that the court should endeavor to rule at the conclusion of the hearing, thus making any difference between the Tennessee and the North Carolina bypass procedures even less significant. See also Planned Parenthood Ass'n of Kansas City, Mo., Inc. v. Ashcroft, 462 U.S. 476, 491-92 n. 16, 103 S.Ct. 2517, 76 L.Ed.2d 733 (1983) (quoting portions of a Missouri statute containing a twenty-four-hour notice of appeal and stating that this section provides the framework for a constitutionally sufficient means of expediting judicial proceedings) (Rehnquist, C.J., concurring with Powell, J.). 3