PHOENIX — Editor's note: The above video is from a previous broadcast.
Arizona Supreme Court Justice Bill Montgomery now says he will recuse himself from upcoming arguments on abortion just days after he said he would participate in such arguments.
"Additional information related to the parties and respective counsel has come to my attention warranting that I recuse myself from any further deliberations in this matter," Montgomery wrote in a new court filing.
Planned Parenthood submitted a motion of recusal on Oct. 26 which stated both Justice Bill Montgomery's public comments and his participation in a protest outside PPAZ headquarters in 2015 would impact his ability to be impartial in the case.
Montgomery was serving as Maricopa County's top prosecutor at the time of the 2015 protest.
On Nov. 22, court paperwork showed Montgomery refused the request and stated that at the time the comments were made, "I was not a member of the judiciary nor was I a candidate for judicial office. Therefore, the Code of Judicial Conduct did not apply," according to the court documents.
According to court documents, Justice Montgomery wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post that Planned Parenthood’s business model “requires abortion,” and that the organization is responsible for the “greatest genocide known to man.”
Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion became a state issue and Arizona reinstated a pre-statehood near-total abortion ban. But PPAZ was able to get the state Court of Appeals to decide the old law was superseded by a 2022 statute.
The statute allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy through the 15th week of pregnancy. The two laws – and determining which one takes precedence – will go before the Arizona Supreme Court in December.
Planned Parenthood Arizona stated in the motion that the request for recusal was not based on Justice Montgomery's personal views, but on his public statements and participation, which do not allow for a "fair trial in a fair tribunal."
"Planned Parenthood Arizona believes that all litigants in Arizona are entitled to have their cases heard by judges who are not biased against them, and that includes Planned Parenthood Arizona,” Senior Director of Public Policy & Government Relations at Planned Parenthood Arizona said in a statement. “After carefully evaluating the recent reporting showing Justice Montgomery’s bias against Planned Parenthood Arizona as an organization, we believe recusal is necessary in our case.”