Judge Asked Why TX Didn't Enforce Its Own Abortion Ban If It's "Confident" The Law Is Constitutional

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/texas-abortion-law-justice-department-lawsuit


WASHINGTON — During arguments Friday over the Justice Department’s effort to halt Texas’s six-week abortion ban, US District Judge Robert Pitman told the state’s lawyer that he had an “obvious” question.

If Texas was so “confident” in the constitutionality of a law that prohibits doctors from performing nearly all abortions after around the sixth week of pregnancy, the judge asked, why did the state “go to such great lengths” to avoid enforcing it directly?

Pitman noted the “unusual” nature of Texas’s SB 8, hitting at a core issue that’s dominated fights over the law so far: whether Texas had found a way to structure an early-term abortion ban to avoid a constitutional challenge the state would likely lose if it tried to enforce it. Courts have repeatedly struck down state laws that ban abortions early in a pregnancy and leave enforcement to prosecutors or other government officials. SB 8 instead deputizes individuals to sue anyone they suspect of performing or aiding an abortion.

Pitman didn’t say how — or when — he’d rule, but his question at a minimum suggested a skepticism of Texas’s insistence that SB 8 wasn’t intended as an attempt to end-run legitimate legal challenges to the law. Texas has claimed that people can raise the constitutional question as a defense if they’re sued, but said that abortion providers and the Justice Department can’t bring lawsuits arguing SB 8 should be struck down on constitutional grounds.

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[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. K&R

[crickets]

3. K&R for visibility.

[UTUSN]

4. The crux question.