Brown v. United Nations
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-07061
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Brown v. United Nations, Judge Swain denied Sharon L. Brown’s request to stop abortion through a preliminary injunction.
Sharon L. Brown’s request for immediate relief was denied, and she was denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees.
What happened
In Brown v. United Nations, Sharon L. Brown, representing herself, asked the court to stop abortion in New York City, New York, and all 50 states. She requested immediate preliminary relief while the case continues.
The court denied the request. It said Brown’s filings did not show either a likely success on her claims or serious legal questions combined with hardships strongly favoring her.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied Brown permission to appeal without paying filing fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The court said it would issue a later order explaining its decision.
The detailed version
- Brown v. United Nations · No. 1:24-cv-07061
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 19, 2024
Background
Sharon L. Brown, who is proceeding without a lawyer, filed a motion seeking a preliminary injunction. Her request asked the court to “stop abortion in NYC, NYS and America all 50 states, right to life already exists and murder, decapitation mutilation is already a crime.”
Legal standard
A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary order issued before a final judgment. To obtain one, Brown had to show that she was likely to suffer irreparable harm and either was likely to succeed on the merits or had sufficiently serious legal questions to justify litigation, with the balance of hardships strongly favoring her.
Ruling
The court found that Brown’s submissions did not demonstrate either a likelihood of success on the merits or sufficiently serious questions combined with a balance of hardships tipping decisively in her favor. It therefore denied her request for an order requiring the defendants to explain why relief should not issue and denied her request for preliminary injunctive relief.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. As a result, it denied Brown permission to appeal without paying filing fees. The court stated that it would issue an explanatory order later.
Disposition
The request for preliminary injunctive relief was denied. The opinion is dated September 18, 2024, while the supplied case metadata lists September 19, 2024 as the filing date.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.