Texas Department of Justice sues over abortion law

The Justice Department sued Texas on Thursday over its recently enacted law that bans nearly all abortions in the state, the Biden administration’s first major step in tackling the nation’s most restrictive ban on abortion. abortion.

The department argued that the Texas law was unconstitutional. “It is a constitutional law established that ‘a state cannot prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability,” “the lawsuit said. “But Texas did just that.”

The department is seeking an injunction that would bar Texas law enforcement. “The Department of Justice has a duty to defend the Constitution of the United States and uphold the rule of law,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said at a press conference at the Department of Justice. “Today we are fulfilling this duty,” he said of the trial.

The lawsuit came days after the Supreme Court refused to block Texas law, which prohibits all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and makes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. It also allows anyone, regardless of whether they have any connection to an abortion, to take legal action against those who practice or otherwise assist in the process, a new legal concept.

The court had stressed that it was not ruling on the constitutionality of the Texas law, but the way it was drafted could make it difficult to challenge in court, initiating a major shift in the fight for abortion rights and paving the way for other states. limit access to abortion.

The new law raised alarm that abortion providers would face a myriad of lawsuits from private citizens.

Mr Garland also said Thursday that Texas law exposes federal employees, including those in the Departments of Defense, Labor and Health, to civil liability if they exercise their powers over abortion services. . He argued that this renders the legislation invalid, both under the supremacy clause of the Constitution which prioritizes federal law over state law and under the 14th Amendment guarantees of equal protection. .

The lawsuit came as Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to meet with abortion and reproductive health service providers and patients to discuss the impact of the Texas law. She was planning to stress that protecting abortion rights was a top priority for the Biden administration, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

The Texas lawsuit is the second time the Justice Department has sued a state for a law passed by a Republican legislature that it considers unconstitutional or otherwise illegal. In June, the department sued Georgia over a sweeping election law, alleging lawmakers intended to violate the rights of black voters.

The Biden administration has made protecting civil rights a priority. Beyond prosecutions, he is also investigating whether several police departments in major cities, including Minneapolis and Louisville, routinely violate the rights of people of color.

But the Justice Department has little power to fight Republican state legislatures that have been emboldened by the conservative shift in federal courts under the Trump administration. In Texas, the peculiarities of the law and the slowness of prosecutions through the court system will make it difficult for the department to protect abortion rights in Texas in the short term. And the conservative Supreme Court majority could make it nearly impossible for the Biden administration to protect abortion rights nationwide in the long term.

This month, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, chose not to block Texas law, known as Senate Law 8, which came into effect in late August. It bans all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

The ruling forced Texas abortion providers to turn away patients to comply with the new restrictions. It has also raised concerns that providers face a series of lawsuits from private citizens and anti-abortion groups willing to take advantage of the leeway the law gives them to prosecute anyone who helps or intends to help. women requesting the procedure.

The unsigned majority opinion said medical providers challenging the law had failed to make their case, but the court was not ruling on the constitutionality of the law.

Even so, it was also seen as a threat to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that granted women the constitutional right to process, and it has reinvigorated advocates on both sides of the debate.

The court will soon be considering a separate case that will determine whether Roe v. Wade must be canceled.

After opponents of the Texas law failed to persuade the Supreme Court to block it, Democrats and abortion rights activists pressured the Biden administration and Mr. Garland to they act.

“We urge you to initiate legal proceedings up to and including criminal proceedings against potential vigilantes attempting to use the private right of action established by this manifestly unconstitutional law,” said the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, New York Representative Jerrold Nadler. , and 22 other House Democrats wrote in a letter to Mr Garland this week.

Mr Garland foreshadowed the Justice Department’s trial on Monday, saying he would urgently explore all of his options “to protect the constitutional rights of women and others, including access to abortion.”