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Sauer is first and foremost an anti-abortion extremist. He participated in multiple lawsuits throughout his career attempting to restrict abortion rights. Most notably, during his time as Missouri’s Solicitor General, Sauer defended a state agency attempting to close Planned Parenthood in the state. During that trial, it was discovered that the department had been tracking women’s periods on a spreadsheet. Sauer’s arguments during Donald Trump’s presidential immunity suit demonstrate a radical view of presidential power that Justice Sotomayor said created a “law-free zone” around presidential actions. Sauer’s claim that the President could order Seal Team Six to kill a political opponent and be immune from criminal prosecution is the most extreme example of his dangerous ideology. Despite Sauer’s legal acumen, he has demonstrated himself to be willing to indulge in Trump’s worst impulses. As Missouri’s Solicitor General, Sauer backed a lawsuit that attempted to overturn the 2020 election. Lastly, throughout his legal career Sauer has consistently fought against LGBTQ rights, from arguing against gay marriage to expanding anti-discrimination protections to gender identity and sexual orientation. |
2019: D. John Sauer Defended Missouri State Agency That Attempted To Close Planned Parenthood In Case That Revealed Department Was Tracking Periods In Spreadsheets.According to the Kansas City Star, "[Sauer] defended the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services in 2019 when the agency revoked the license of Missouri’s last-remaining abortion clinic in St. Louis. The case generated national attention when the agency’s director, Randall Williams, testified that he kept a spreadsheet to track the menstrual periods of women who visited Planned Parenthood. The spreadsheet was obtained by Planned Parenthood through legal discovery and its existence came to light during a hearing in the license case, according to previous reporting. DHSS at the time pushed back on a claim that Williams had requested the spreadsheet, although it was titled 'Director’s Request.' The agency also said Williams was never in possession of the spreadsheet and had not seen it until he was deposed in October 2019. Missouri’s Administrative Hearing Commission ultimately ruled that the agency had wrongfully denied the license, allowing the clinic to continue offering abortions." [Kansas City Star, 11/19/24]
D. John Sauer Participated In Multiple Lawsuits To Restrict Abortion Access. According to the Kansas City Star, "Sauer has also drafted, or signed onto, several legal briefs fighting abortion access, including one in 2021 that defended an Arizona law that restricted abortion based on a patient’s reason for seeking one, including genetic conditions." [Kansas City Star, 11/19/24]
2024: D. John Sauer Donated Over $700,000 To Anti-Abortion Groups. According to the Kansas City Star, "After leaving the Missouri Attorney General’s Office in 2023, Sauer has made substantial donations to anti-abortion causes in the state. This year, he contributed $777,000 to Missouri anti-abortion groups, including $277,000 to two groups that opposed a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. " [Kansas City Star, 11/19/24]
D. John Sauer Argued A President Would Be Immune From Prosecution If He Ordered Seal Team Six To Kill A Political Opponent. According to Bloomberg Law, "Sauer went on to successfully represent Trump at the Supreme Court in his bid for immunity from being criminally charged for trying to overturn the 2020 election. The justices voted 6-3 along ideological lines in July to give Trump immunity from some official acts he took as president. Before the case got to the Supreme Court, Sauer argued at the D.C. Circuit that the president would be immune from prosecution if he ordered SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent." [Bloomberg Law, 11/14/24]
July 2024: Supreme Court Ruled All Presidents Have Immunity From “Officials Acts” In Trump Case. According to PBS News, "In a landmark ruling with potentially major impact on the 2024 presidential campaign, a U.S. Supreme Court majority ruled that presidents — including former President Donald Trump — have immunity from prosecution when carrying out 'official acts.' 'Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,' the court wrote. 'And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.'" [PBS News, 7/1/24]
D. John Sauer Supported Texas Lawsuit To Overturn 2020 Election Results As Missouri’s Solicitor General. According to SCOTUSblog, "In December 2020, Sauer led a group of states in filing a 'friend of the court' brief supporting Texas’s unsuccessful efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in four battleground states won by Joe Biden. Sauer wrote that Texas’s allegations 'raise important questions about election integrity and public confidence in the administration of Presidential elections,' but the justices concluded that Texas lacked a legal right, known as standing, to bring its case." [SCOTUSblog, 11/15/24]
2015: D. John Sauer Argued Against Gay Marriage. In 2015, D. John Sauer was lead counsel for an amicus curiae brief filed by 57 members of Congress in Obergefell v. Hodges that stated, “Amici believe that a judgment of this Court imposing a judicially mandated revision of state laws defining marriage would circumvent the proper resolution of these profound and divisive issues through state democratic processes. Such a decision could damage the rights of a self-governing people. It would set an unwarranted precedent, with effects far beyond this case, of federal encroachment into a traditional area of state concern.” [Amicus Curaei Brief, “Obergefell v. Hodges,” United States Supreme Court, 14-556, Filed 4/3/15]
2021: College Of The Ozarks Sued The Biden Administration For Rule Expanding Fair House Act To Include Protection Against Discrimination Based On Gender Identity And Sexual Orientation. According to Higher Ed Dive, "The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to consider an appeal from a Christian college in Missouri that sued the Biden administration over a federal directive protecting gay and transgender people from housing discrimination. In 2021, College of the Ozarks filed its lawsuit, which challenged a legal interpretation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD at the time determined that the Fair Housing Act shielded people from discrimination based on their gender identity and sexual orientation. College of the Ozarks said this did not comport with its religious tenets, as it sought to assign students housing based on their sex at birth, rather than their gender identity. The Supreme Court’s denial to hear the case ends the college’s legal challenge." [Higher Ed Dive, 6/20/23]
D. John Sauer Filed Amicus Brief As Missouri’s Solicitor General Opposing Biden Administration’s Protections For LGBTQ Individuals.
In 2021, D. John Sauer filed an Amicus Brief as Missouri’s Solicitor General in School of the Ozarks v. Biden that stated, “Through their Attorneys General, the Amici States are well 2 positioned to explain that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has transgressed this boundary here. This case involves an expansion of federal power and the balancing of antidiscrimination interests with religious beliefs. [...] Amici States urge the Court to apply traditional standing requirements and reverse the district court’s error-laden decision, which applies a selectively narrow view of religious organizations’ standing to challenge federal rules that directly interfere with the free exercise of their faith.” [Amicus Curaei Brief, “School of the Ozarks v. Biden, United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit, 21-2270,
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