This is turning out to be a very satisfying news day, with the one black blot of another school shooting in Texas. The Hill:
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a controversial Texas law banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman’s ruling said, “A person’s right under the Constitution to choose to obtain an abortion prior to fetal viability is well established.” It added that “depriving citizens of this right” would be “flagrantly unconstitutional.”
The order followed the Biden administration’s challenge to the ban, which the Supreme Court narrowly allowed to take effect about a month ago.
The order noted that Texas requested that the state be allowed to appeal the injunction before it takes effect.
“The State has forfeited the right to any such accommodation by pursuing an unprecedented and aggressive scheme to deprive its citizens of a significant and well-established constitutional right,” Pitman wrote.
Greg Abbott has not chimed in as of the time of this posting.
There is a particular clause in that Texas bill that is odious even by the odious standards of the overall statute. Of course, the entire thing was a a blatant attempt by the state to pass Constitutional muster by turning over enforcement power they wanted to criminalize to private citizens. That in and of itself is a Constitutional question that makes SCOTUS’ vote to allow the law to go into effect via the Shadow Dockett all the more shocking. Anyway, anticipating that with their newfound Federalist/Fascist Society control of SCOTUS that eventually the law would be deemed Constitutional – the IN-Justices would just make shit up to justify their decision. However, in the meantime it was a safe bet that somewhere along the line there might well be an injunction preventing the law from either going into effect at all or blocking enforcement, keeping abortion not only legal in TX but preventing any “civil” prosecutions filed by private citizens. So they wrote in a specific clause that said that even if during a period in which an injunction blocking the law were in effect that if later the law was upheld by the courts (which ultimately means SCOTUS) then assholes can RETROACTIVELY sue for their ten thousand bucks!
Where this gets really murky is that the Constitution specifically bars Ex Post Facto laws (both at the federal and state level) and Bills of Attainder. Both these provisions are specific to CRIMNAL acts defined under such laws, yet over time the lines between criminal and civil matters has made the distinction blurred at the SCOTUS level. Of course, given the current makeup of the Court the Fascists would blow right through such blurring and establish clear, bright lines but it could be a long, long time before this gets to that point. Time during which Thomas and Alito might die or retire (both are up there in years) and if we can somehow hang on to the WH and the Senate till 2028 it could be a whole new ball game even without expanding the Court.
However I fear in the short-term because of the provision in the TX law I mentioned little will change in TX for the time being. I’m watching TV and an appeal of the judges ruling has already been filed by TX but it’s a long, long and apparently well-crafted & detailed decision and winning an appeal might happen quickly down there in that conservative circuit but SCOTUS might already be feeling the heat. Keep in mind that McConnell might have overplayed his hand, and the filibuster itself could be in danger. That itself opens up possibilities in the near future including expanding the Court to eleven members – one for each circuit! Not to mention adding a bunch of federal judges which is something Chief Justice Roberts has been quietly agitating for since not long after he was elevated to Chief Justice! For a guy so concerned with his legacy he’d look pretty stupid turning around and saying all that stuff he wrote was just “joking around.”
The ruling is 113 pages long and lays out all the things wrong with the law.
You can find it here:
https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/show_temp-1.pdf
I think they got nervous when it looked like an actual case might come to trial.
The law was never intended to be enforced, only to act as a deterrent.