U.S. Supreme Court: Post-Ginsburg Edition

Sounds like the existing challenges will proceed in lower courts without the benefit of a temporary injunction. Which means eventually, maybe we get lucky and a federal court rules on the actual legality of the law and strikes it down, and SCOTUS either doesn't hear the appeal or concurs.

None of that is a given, but in the interim, millions of Texas women have lost the ability to get an abortion. Oklahoma already reporting an uptick in abortion patients from Texas.

But not everyone in Texas has that luxury.

A few thoughts from the point of view of Remedies law on the Supreme Court's 5-4 order tonight that has the effect of letting Texas ban all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy: https://t.co/N9iROS9fqg /1

— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) September 2, 2021

Good morning!

The majority opinion was unsigned and consisted of a single long paragraph. It said the abortion providers who had challenged the law in an emergency application to the court had not made their case in the face of “complex and novel” procedural questions. The majority stressed that it was not ruling on the constitutionality of the Texas law and did not mean to limit “procedurally proper challenges” to it.

Majority: "Great idea, dudes! We don't mean to strike down the law, so we'll watch to see what y'all come up with!"

on one hand the floodgates theory may be the only thing in favor of this ultimately being invalidated (justices not being ok with the state delegating criminal law enforcement to any random person and therefore escaping any and all constitutional protections for the defendant), on the other hand these people are so evil that they are probably cool with that

I've never seen Roberts write such a fiery dissent when siding with the libs. Guess he thought, "Hey, guys, there's a right way and a righter way to destroy Roe."

it's pure ass covering

whole thing is jaw-dropping, nakedly evil. should be the biggest story in the country until something - court-packing, federal law, constitutional amendment - is done.

I think this will eventually get overturned but Robert's project to kill liberal priorities by 1000 paper cuts will continue unabated

Isn’t enforcement of the Americans With Disabilities Act left up to private citizens?

yes but you need to have standing and it's not a criminal law in disguise, and the main remedy is fixing the thing that is causing harm to the plaintiff. this allows any person to file a "civil lawsuit" where the penalty is a minimum $10k fine and lawyer's fees to the plaintiff if they win. they also can get an injunction but the plaintiff doesn't need to be affected in any way to file, and the injunction doesn't do anything to help them, it just stops the abortion from happening.

I most hopelessly desperate takes I've seen have been all "Hah, the GOP has played right into our hands! What fools! They're like the dog that caught the car! Now abortion becomes the number one gotv mobilizer in all upcoming elections, the new ACA! Texas and other red states will finally turn blue!" Um, OK, sure.

where have you read those takes? I'm not disbelieving you, but, well, that's...not what I'm reading.

On twitter from people.

Might have been this that caught my eye:

To the topic at hand:

There are *far* more voters who support the right to choose — even if they don’t necessarily support abortion — than there are rabid pro-birthers.

Texas just fired up Dems and Independents at what is undoubtedly the low-point of Biden’s Presidency. 2/2

— Angry Staffer (@Angry_Staffer) September 2, 2021

gabbneb lives!

I'm brainstorming a way to do the same thing but with guns.

same thing = apply this bullshit legislative approach

yeah! i'm going to make a list of people i know who have guns and retire on the fines i collect when the democrats win (due to their newly motivated voters) and establish a private right of action to ban them

"We're not banning guns, we just established a private right of action to allow any citizen to confiscate the gun for purposes of destroying them."

Like this would fail scrutiny so fast your head would spin, but in this climate, ugh.

way easier to prove a compelling government interest in keeping my neighbor from having a gun but, you know

Good to see Trump grift accounts are working hard to stay relevant.

????? like what is Biden actually suggesting here

Breaking from Biden:

"I am directing that Council and the Office of the WH Counsel to launch a whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision, looking … to see what steps the Federal Gov't can take to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions."

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 2, 2021

...move to a different country?

Council and Counsel launching effort to look at steps! Watch out everyone!

Airlifting women from Texas to states that are marginally less hellish.

is there an actual chance of this being blocked at the 5th Circuit Court and then SCOTUS abdicating to hear any appeal due to wanting to appear impartial?

really just trying to figure out what the path forward is (besides the obvious court packing and filibuster abolition, which I don't see Biden trying w/ his approval ratings declining, even though it's the right thing to do)

harbl answered some of my questions above, and obviously it all hinges on a SCOTUS that doesn't respect precedent, but when it comes to the law, I'm terribly lost.

if they had any interest in not appearing impartial you would know by now

tbh while i am a lawyer i avoid paying too much attention to the supreme court because i hate it so i'm not an expert, but whatever happens in the 5th circuit they will take the case

zomg

Statement from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland pic.twitter.com/r2LrUTGvD1

— Anthony Coley (@AnthonyColeyDOJ) September 2, 2021

Council and Counsel launching effort to look at steps! Watch out everyone!

It's all so much simpler when the Supreme Leader can just make the rules and everyone either has to follow them or else be disappeared in the night.

c'mon, I wasn't criticizing them for not taking a more decisive action, just general handwringing about the situation. anyway I think we all agree the safeguards on the process are not respected equally by all sides

anyway I think we all agree the safeguards on the process are not respected equally by all sides

new USA motto

now it is the Supreme Court that is doing precisely that

xxp

I mean I guess the Judicial department *can* look at legal remedies, SCOTUS didn't make a final ruling or anything.

but short of creating a federal abortion center that visits Texas and basically dares civilians to sue them, idk what they could possibly do.

it'd be fine, the justice department could just counter-sue the hundreds/thousand of individual people/militias that sue them

DOJ's gonna submit one hell of an amicus brief on the court challenge to this law.

what do you suggest the DOJ and president do in this situation?

A lot of furrowing?

I would advise them to abolish the filibuster.

the DOJ?

Biden should send hire doctors under federal authority and send them to Texas to protect constitutional medical services at least until the Supreme Court bothers to figure out what the law may or may not be regarding BOUNTIES.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) September 2, 2021

Not suggesting anything in particular, but here's a list of all of the pro-life OB/GYNs in Texas
https://aaplog.org/find-a-pro-life-obgyn-search/?frm_search=Texas&show_view=yes

btw this thing operates on some kind of anonymous tip website. Crazy.

I would advise them to abolish the filibuster.

― it is to laugh, like so, ha! (Aimless), Thursday, 2 September 2021 bookmarkflaglink

48 Democratic senators have signed onto this bill. The only holdouts: Joe Manchin and Bob Casey https://t.co/CHapZSQOCd

— Andrew Perez (@andrewperezdc) September 2, 2021

I would put Manchin’s daughter in jail and dare him to cry about it

Like how much under-the-table bank is Manchin making off of GOP donors or whoever, seriously

also put that heart attack gun on Breyer like yesterday

Yep, because when the Senate flips in 2022, Moscow Mitch will make sure no Biden nominee gets confirmed.