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Post by Admin on Dec 10, 2021 18:47:09 GMT
#FoxNews Supreme Court allows Texas abortion law to remain in effect amid litigation 78,193 views • Dec 11, 2021 • Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, discuss the case, which has not yet been decided. #FoxNews /cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/YMXK7F6OJNL7DCX3WCEP3HSZUI.jpg) A judge in Texas ruled on Thursday that a law prohibiting abortions after about six weeks violated the state's constitution because it allows private citizens to sue abortion providers. State District Court Judge David Peeples was ruling on a contentious Texas law that bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, usually after about six weeks and when many women do not yet realize they are pregnant. Abortion providers signaled that despite the ruling, they are unlikely to resume the procedure until an expected ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law, which went into effect in September, effectively bans nearly all abortions in Texas, America's second most-populous state. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about the Texas law last month and is expected to issue a ruling in coming weeks. The nation's highest court this month also heard arguments about a restrictive Republican-backed Mississippi law that is seen as a direct challenge to the court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide. read more In oral arguments on Dec. 1, conservative justices, who have a 6-3 majority on the court, signaled a willingness to dramatically curtail abortion rights in the United States. A ruling on the Mississippi law is expected by the summer. |
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Post by Admin on Dec 10, 2021 20:33:44 GMT
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that abortion providers in Texas can go ahead with their lawsuit challenging S.B. 8, the nation's most restrictive abortion law.
But the court declined to block enforcement of the law while the court battle continues, so the law remains in effect.
The ruling was a blow to Texas, which had sought to make the law nearly impossible to challenge in federal court. The state argued that abortion providers could not contest the law in advance but had to wait until they were sued for violating it.
Friday's ruling was only a partial victory for abortion providers, however. The court ruled that the federal government cannot pursue a separate lawsuit filed by the Justice Department that challenged the law. It also narrowed the field of possible defendants that can be sued in any lawsuits that go forward.
By a 5-4 vote, the court also said lawsuits cannot proceed against court clerks and some other Texas officials, including the attorney general. Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's three liberals — Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — were the four who said those officials could be sued.
But by an 8-1 vote, the court said the challengers could sue state officials that license abortion facilities. Justice Clarence Thomas was the sole dissenter on that point.
The justices did not decide whether the Texas law violates the Constitution. That issue was not presented in the case, but the decision Friday clears the way for the issue to be litigated in the state. Because the law clearly violates existing Supreme Court abortion precedents, the challenges are likely to prevail.
In his partial dissent, joined by the three liberal justices, Roberts blasted the law as an attack on the court itself.
"The clear purpose and actual effect of S.B. 8 has been to nullify this Court’s rulings," Roberts wrote. "It is, however, a basic principle that the Constitution is the 'fundamental and paramount law of the nation,' and 'it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.'"
"Indeed," Roberts continued, quoting from an 1809 case, "'if the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the Constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery.'"
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