U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Photo Credit: Jason Doiy/ALM

SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday rejected a bid by anti-abortion activists to block a fraud and racketeering suit by Planned Parenthood in a case centered on secretly recorded videos.

Writing for the unanimous panel, Circuit Judge Ronald Gould wrote that the district court properly denied an anti-SLAPP motion by the Center for Medical Progress, headed by anti-abortion activist David Daleiden, and other defendants.

Noting that the consistency between California's anti-SLAPP measure and federal rules of civil procedure has been “hotly disputed,” the panel concluded that U.S. District Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California “did not err in declining to evaluate the factual sufficiency” of Planned Parenthood's complaint at the pleading stage.

Gould was joined in his decision by Circuit Judge Mary Murguia and Nancy Freudenthal, the chief district judge for the District of Wyoming, sitting by designation. Gould also authored a concurrence joined by Murguia in which he called on the Ninth Circuit to revisit en banc whether interlocutory appeals of anti-SLAPP decisions should be permitted.

Amy Bomse of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, who argued the case for Planned Parenthood, said she was pleased with the decision.

“These are defendants who lied and broke the law in order to spread malicious lies against Planned Parenthood,” Bomse said. “We're looking forward to having our case proceed to trial.”

Jeffrey Trissell of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, which represents the defendants, said they were disappointed with the ruling and evaluating how to move forward.

Planned Parenthood's case is nearly identical to a case brought by the National Abortion Federation, also pending in front of Orrick in San Francisco federal court.

The cases both center on videos that Daleiden and his co-operatives recorded after infiltrating meetings held by the two groups, which purported to show abortion providers discussing the sale of fetal tissue. The groups say the videos were manipulated to give that false portrayal.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month declined to overturn an injunction against Troy Newman, president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue Inc., and Daleiden barring them from releasing the footage taken at National Abortion Federation meetings.