Department of Justice Appeals to Supreme Court to Block Texas Abortion Law

The US Department of Justice has appealed the Texas anti-abortion bill to the US Supreme Court – the very court that caused this mess.

It’s been a nightmare for both women’s rights and those that support freedom of expression. In September, the US Supreme court, currently packed with conservative judges, overturned Roe v Wade, tossing caselaw out the window in favour of politics. The decision paved the way for for profit harassment mobs to stream onto Reddit (only to get banned for harassment). It also inspired an organization to set up a website to allow Texans to turn in their friends, loved ones, and neighbours to cash in on the $10,000 bounties afforded by the law. The website has struggled to stay online because it violated the terms of service for numerous hosting providers.

The US Department of Justice has been attempting to stop this law from taking effect. Earlier, a District Judge issued an order blocking the law on legal grounds. That decision got appealed. The judges on appeal threw out the legal ruling and chose to put politics before the law, striking the lower courts ruling.

Now, we are learning that the US Department of Justice has appealed the ruling to the US Supreme Court. In a normal timeline, the US Justice Department would have a slam dunk case. However, this is a timeline that consists of leftovers of the chaos, death and destruction caused by the Trump administration. Now, we have a Supreme Court that is less about the law and more about politics. The September ruling shook the entire US legal community to the core because this is not how the law works in the US. Today, it is how the law works whether the whole profession likes it or not. While the US Justice Department might be able to pound the law, the conservative judges are generally expected by some to pound the table and let politics rule the day. Still, that arm of the government doesn’t exactly have much choice in the matter. From NBC:

The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Monday to temporarily block enforcement of the Texas law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

It was the second challenge of the law to reach the court on an emergency appeal, seeking to put it on hold while lawsuits contesting its constitutionality work their way through the lower courts. By a 5-4 vote, the court turned away the first appeal in early September, saying the case presented “complex and novel” questions about whether the court had the authority to hear it, given the unusual structure of Senate Bill 8, as the law is known.

The court signaled its intent to move quickly with the latest challenge, ordering Texas to file a response by noon Thursday.

The appeal filed Monday involved a separate challenge to the law brought by the Biden administration. It claimed that Texas could not take away the right of access to abortion without providing a means to defend the right in court.

“Rather than forthrightly defending its law and asking this court to revisit its decisions, Texas took matters into its own hand by crafting an unprecedented structure to thwart judicial review,” the Justice Department said in its emergency appeal.

It’s a dicey situation that shouldn’t be dicey at all, yet, here we are. As things stand now, the strength of the constitution now depends on what gender you are. If the last ruling is anything to go by, then we could see that constitutional division between genders expand further.

Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.

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