Jeffrey Harris (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has retained Jeffrey M. Harris of Consovoy McCarthy from Washington, D.C., to defend the state in a constitutional challenge to an abortion ban set to take effect Jan. 1.

Carr has retained Harris as a special assistant attorney general for the lawsuit, Communications Director Katie Byrd said Tuesday. Other than that, Carr declined to comment, as did Harris.

Harris joined the litigation boutique Consovoy McCarthy as a partner in 2018 after working for President Donald Trump. Harris served as associate administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He was second in charge of a 50-person staff within the Executive Office of the President reviewing federal regulatory actions and coordinating regulatory policy for the government, according to his bio on the firm website. Previously, Harris was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, where his practice focused on the U.S. Supreme Court, appellate and complex litigation.

Harris clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. as well as D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judges David Sentelle and Laurence Silberman, according to his firm bio. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard law school.

SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, the Feminist Women's Health Center, Planned Parenthood and other clinics and physicians have sued Carr along with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and prosecutors around the state in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The complaint alleges the abortion ban created by House Bill 481 is unconstitutional and violates U.S. Supreme Court precedent. The case has been assigned to Judge Steve Jones.

On Tuesday, the groups filed a brief in support of a motion for preliminary injunctive relief. “Our first priority is to block this law from going into effect during the pendency of this litigation,” plaintiffs' counsel ACLU Georgia Legal Director Sean J. Young said.

The document filed Tuesday said the “balance of harm tips decidedly” in favor of SisterSong and the other advocacy groups challenging the ban.

“While plaintiffs and their patients and members will suffer numerous irreparable harms without an injunction, defendants will suffer no injury whatsoever; plaintiffs' requested relief will simply preserve the status quo of nearly five decades,” the motion said.

The abortion ban in Georgia is similar to those that have passed in a dozen states. None has taken effect, and all have been blocked by federal judges. Appeals are pending. The Georgia case would go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which has already rejected requests to uphold later bans in two other cases—while expressing disapproval of the procedures at issue and Supreme Court precedent. Proponents of the bans have made clear their ambition to prompt the Supreme Court to overturn its landmark holding in Roe v. Wade.

Emphasizing the importance of the case, ACLU Georgia Executive Director Andrea Young quoted Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in Planned Parenthood v. Casey affirming Roe v. Wade: “The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives.”

The case is SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective v. Brian Kemp, Civil Action No.: 1:19-cv-02973-SCJ.