{"id":1106091,"date":"2021-12-10T13:14:11","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T18:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1106091"},"modified":"2021-12-10T13:14:13","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T18:14:13","slug":"supreme-court-clears-way-for-challenge-to-texas-abortion-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-clears-way-for-challenge-to-texas-abortion-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Clears Way for Challenge to Texas Abortion Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsupreme-court-clears-way-for-challenge-to-texas-abortion-law%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1106091&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"29.223140495868\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/courts\/\">The Courts<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Victory could be short lived if Court overturns Roe<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"736\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236932319-736x500-1.jpg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236932319-scaled-e1639156147315.jpg 736w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236932319-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236932319-1024x696.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236932319-768x522.jpg 768w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236932319-1536x1044.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236932319-2048x1393.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236932319-1400x952.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236932319-722x491.jpg 722w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tAnti-abortion protesters in front of the Supreme Court. (Getty Images)\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/kevin-daley\/\" title=\"Posts by Kevin Daley\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Kevin Daley<\/a> \u2022 December 10, 2021 1:10 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"121.5\">\n<p>The Supreme Court on Friday allowed abortion clinics in Texas to proceed with their challenge to the state\u2019s heartbeat law, which will remain in effect for the time being.<\/p>\n<p>The outcome enables abortion providers to request a long-sought order blocking the law in full. The decision is splintered over several opinions that reveal deep and fractious divides among the justices. The justices dismissed a separate lawsuit from the Biden administration without comment.<\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s decision, though a victory for the law\u2019s critics, could prove meaningless by the summer. The justices signaled during oral arguments on Dec. 1 that they will uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortion at 15 weeks, and could skuttle <em>Roe<\/em> v. <em>Wade<\/em> altogether. Providers in Texas will be in a holding pattern until the Court decides the Mississippi case, <em>Dobbs<\/em> v. <em>Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Eight justices splintered over several opinions allowed the clinics to move forward with their lawsuit. Justice Neil Gorsuch delivered the Court\u2019s opinion, joined by Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Clarence Thomas joined most of the Gorsuch opinion but wrote separately to say he would not allow the clinics\u2019 lawsuit to go forward.<\/p>\n<p>Abortion services have ended for the most part in Texas, and Monday\u2019s result may not change the situation on the ground. The act dictates that providers may be held liable for performing abortions if <em>Roe<\/em> is narrowed or overturned. It\u2019s possible that Texas providers will curtail their services significantly until the Court gives more definite guidance in the <em>Dobbs<\/em> case.<\/p>\n<p>Recent surveys show the political tumult that followed enactment of the act has leveled off. Texas voters identified border security as the state\u2019s most pressing concern, according to a Quinnipiac poll released this week, with 33 percent of respondents identifying it as the top issue. Abortion ranked third behind the economy, clocking in at just 9 percent. Gov. Greg Abbott (R.), who signed the bill in May, is leading his top Democratic challenger by 15 points ahead of next year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n<p>Clinics in Texas have maintained that they are fully complying with the act. Data from researchers at the University of Texas suggest abortions have declined by 50 percent since the heartbeat law took effect. Their figures show there were about 2,200 abortions in Texas in September of this year, down from about 5,400 in August.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s difficult to subvert the Texas act in its entirety because private citizens are responsible for its enforcement. When a court finds a particular law unconstitutional, it bars the relevant government officials from enforcing it. That path isn&#8217;t available here because any number of ordinary people can enforce the act.<\/p>\n<p>The pro-abortion plaintiffs in Friday\u2019s case proposed a workaround: They could sue Texas court officials to block them from accepting heartbeat act lawsuits in the first place. A majority of the Court rejected that proposal. The Court said such claims are barred by precedent and that court clerks aren\u2019t participants in legal disputes in the sense necessary to trigger a federal court\u2019s jurisdiction. A majority of the Court also rejected an alternate theory that the plaintiffs can sue Texas attorney general Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n<p>A majority of justices, however, said the clinics can sue four state licensing officials who are responsible for enforcing state safety rules, which to the Court&#8217;s eye includes the heartbeat law. A complaint from the pro-abortion side against those officials is likely in short order.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a partial dissent, which the liberal trio joined. The opinion\u2019s sharp voice is a notable departure from Roberts\u2019s usual tone. He pointedly accused Texas of nullifying the Court\u2019s abortion precedents and equated its behavior with mockery of the Constitution. He said the case presented a fundamental question of judicial power to review the law.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The nature of the federal right infringed does not matter; it is the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system that is at stake,&#8221; Roberts wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered another partial dissent for the Court\u2019s liberal trio. Sotomayor has been a persistent and outspoken critic of the Texas law since the Court <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/courts\/supreme-court-greenlights-texas-law-ending-most-abortions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">allowed<\/a> it to take effect in September.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Court should have put an end to this madness months ago, before S.B. 8 first went into effect,&#8221; Sotomayor said. &#8220;It failed to do so then, and it fails again today.&#8221; She further accused the Court of &#8220;betraying&#8221; the people of Texas.<\/p>\n<p>The cases are No. 21-463 <em>Whole Woman\u2019s Health<\/em> v. <em>Jackson<\/em> and No. 21-588 <em>U.S.<\/em> v. <em>Texas<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Courts Victory could be short lived if Court overturns Roe  Anti-abortion protesters in front of the Supreme Court. (Getty Images)  Kevin Daley \u2022 &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1106091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1106091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1106091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1106091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1106091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}