DOJ Will Ask Supreme Court to Block Texas Abortion Ban.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that it will ask the Supreme Court to put Texas' abortion ban on hold while it continues to undergo legal challenges.
"The Justice Department intends to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit's stay of the preliminary injunction against Texas Senate Bill 8," DOJ Spokesman Anthony Coley said in an emailed statement.
The announcement comes just hours after a federal appeals court rejected a request by DOJ to again halt the state's ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The court's order follows a temporary decision made by the same panel of judges last week, after U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman had briefly suspended the Texas ban, calling it "an unprecedented and aggressive scheme to deprive its citizens of a significant and well-established constitutional right."
The Supreme Court in a different case last month denied an emergency request to block Texas' ban on abortions performed after six weeks of pregnancy in a 5-4 vote as the state's law took effect, upholding the most restrictive measures on access to abortion in the nation. The court's decision led President Joe Biden the following day to announce plans to launch a "whole-of-government effort" in response to the court's inaction.
"The Supreme Court's ruling overnight is an unprecedented assault on a woman's constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade, which has been the law of the land for almost fifty years," Biden said in a statement.
The Biden administration sued the state of Texas over its abortion policy, and later asked Pitman to block the enforcement of the country's most restrictive abortion law.
In the lawsuit, the department laid out its argument for unconstitutionality, writing that "it is settled constitutional law that 'a state may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.'"
The mechanism of the Texas law, which incentivizes regular citizens to sue anyone who they suspect has violated the law, including health care workers, providers or anyone who helps someone access abortion services after six weeks of pregnancy, has been criticized, being called a "scheme" by many in opposition. But the mechanism also makes it harder, experts say, for advocates to challenge the measure.
"This kind of scheme to nullify the Constitution of the United States is one that all Americans, whatever their politics or party, should fear," Attorney General Merrick Garland said as the department announced a lawsuit against the state in September. "If it prevails, it may become a model for action in other areas, by other states, and with respect to other constitutional rights and judicial precedents."