Carter Phillips of Sidley Austin, speaking at a Federalist Society conference in 2008. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM

The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday called “baseless” the U.S. Justice Department's accusation that lawyers for the group acted unethically in their advocacy for a pregnant immigrant teen who sought an abortion.

The civil liberties group was responding in the U.S. Supreme Court to a petition filed Nov. 3 by U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco. The conflict between the Justice Department and the ACLU centers on the scheduling of the teenage girl's abortion and communications about that timing between the lawyers on both sides. The abortion had been at the center of a case in Washington federal district court.

“The solicitor general has filed extraordinary and baseless complaints to distract from his own failure to act promptly in response to an adverse decision of the court of appeals,” Sidley Austin's Carter Phillips, representing the ACLU, said in the new court filing in Hargan v. Garza. “The ACLU's lawyers acted in the best interest of their client and in full compliance with the law. That the government failed to seek further review quickly enough is entirely their own responsibility.”