Abortion providers seeking to challenge Texas’s restrictive abortion law have filed a brief to the Supreme Court, following a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last week which would delay the litigation process.
The Fifth Circuit will hold additional hearings regarding who can be sued over the law’s enforcementThis week, it will be. A brief was filed Monday to the Supreme Court by abortion providers. It claimed that this action is unnecessary and time-consuming.
“Absent intervention by the Court, the Fifth Circuit is poised to entertain questions already decided by the Court in direct violation of this Court’s mandate and delay further resolution of this case in the district court by at least weeks, and potentially months or more,” wrote Marc Heron, a lawyer who represents the state’s abortion providers.
The abortion providers want the matter returned to a lower federal court so that it can continue in the federal judicial system. The case can be handled more quickly, which is crucial, as Supreme Court justices have ruled on the matter before. The law will be upheldWhile it is being challenged.
The Supreme Court has already heard arguments about who abortion providers can sue regarding the law’s constitutionality. The court ruled last month that Texas state officials can be sued by federal court providers.
Last week The Fifth Circuit ruled that a hearing would be heldon whether the matter could be returned to the stateSupreme Court. A judicial body would decide if state officials can be sued. This hearing is scheduled for January 7.
One judge on the circuit court panel dissented with his colleagues, stating that the federal Supreme Court “could not have been more explicit” in its ruling.
“In its exact holding, the Court stated, ‘we hold that sovereign immunity does not bar the petitioners’ suit against these named defendants at the motion to dismiss stage,” Judge Stephen Higginson spoke, adding that the ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals would result in an “impermissible delay to the vindication of the constitutional rights of Texas women in federal court.”
The Supreme Court should quickly act on the appeals of abortion providers citing the “urgency of the situation”Noting that the law can be delayed for longer periods of time,
In tweets on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) agreed with providers’ assertions, claiming that the actions of Fifth Circuit Court ran counter to the Supreme Court’s previous order.
“The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is defying the Supreme Court’s opinion by refusing to send our case back to the district court, delaying our challenge against Texas’ extreme ban,” the ACLU wrote. “The Supreme Court must put an end to the appeals court’s attempts to delay our fight. This delay is unconscionable, cruel, and downright dangerous.”
Texas’s abortion law bans the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, a standard that is far below what the Supreme Court established in prior rulings. But even though the law clearly infringes upon the constitutionally protected right to access abortion services, it has evaded scrutiny from a number of courts — including the Supreme Court — because the law places the Enforcement is the responsibilityPrivat citizens and not the state.
