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The Justice Department tried to quickly stop a restrictive anti-abortion law in Texas after the Supreme Court refused and requested an injunction to block it long enough for a court to rule it unconstitutional.
The 27-page complaint, filed Thursday in federal court in Austin, calls for both an immediate and permanent restraining order against the law, which bans almost all abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
“The law is clearly unconstitutional after longstanding Supreme Court precedent,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference.
The Supreme Court last week refused to block the measure, as requested by abortion providers in Texas, while it is being challenged in lower courts.
The law, known as Texas Senate Bill 8, gives citizens the power to sue anyone who conducts or helps with the process.
QuickTake: How the Texas Abortion Act Turns the Public into Enforcers
Garland called the law an “unprecedented scheme” with “bounty hunters”.
“The obvious and explicitly recognized intent of this legal system is to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights by thwarting judicial review for as long as possible,” Garland said. “This type of plan to repeal the United States Constitution is a plan that all Americans, regardless of politics or party, should fear.”
The lawsuit comes as Garland and the Justice Department face mounting pressure to take action from President Joe Biden, Democrats in Congress, and advocates for women’s reproductive rights. However, Garland denied that the political pressure had anything to do with the decision to file the lawsuit.
The Department is seeking a declaratory judgment that the law is invalid under the Supremacy Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, anticipated by federal law, and violates the doctrine of interstate immunity.
Stephen Miller, who served as advisor to former President Donald Trump and is now president of the conservative group America First Legal, said in a statement that the lawsuit was “not a legal but a political action – a statement by President Biden”. Support for Abortion. “He called it” extremely bizarre “that it tried to prevent any Texas resident from invoking the law.
Perspectives discussed
The lawsuit comes as the conservatively controlled Supreme Court prepares for an appeal in Mississippi aimed at overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
Some legal experts have questioned whether the lawsuit will succeed in stopping the Texas measure.
“The trick here isn’t the virtues; those would always be incredibly strong, “Steve Vladeck, professor of constitutional law at the University of Texas, said in a tweet. “The trick is to get the right exoneration from the right defendants. A declaratory judgment against TX is a good place to start, but it’s not clear how a court can … prevent anyone … from enforcing it. “
But Neal Katyal, who served as chief attorney on the government’s Supreme Court under President Barack Obama, said procedural issues were not much different than the Justice Department when it sued Arizona a decade ago over its crackdown on illegal immigration. The Supreme Court overturned Arizona law in 2012.
“Vigilante justice is difficult, but not that difficult, to create a case, especially given the deterrent effect,” Katyal said. He said the lawsuit “creates a showdown in the US Supreme Court over whether Roe v. Calf is lifted ”.
Garland said in a statement Monday that the ministry is urgently reviewing all options to challenge the Texan law. The department will use powers under an existing law to assist federal law enforcement agencies if an abortion clinic or reproductive health center is attacked, Garland said at the time.
Biden said last week he believes the Justice Department may have the option to “limit” the legislation without giving details. He called the law an “attack” on the right to abortion.
The case is: US vs. State of Texas, 21-cv-00796, US District Court, Western District of Texas (Austin)
(Updates with comment from supporters of Texas law in paragraph 10)
–With support from Bob Van Voris and Laurel Calkins.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Chris Strohm in Washington at cstromm1@bloomberg.net;
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net
Larry Liebert, Elizabeth Wasserman
© 2021 Bloomberg LP All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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