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Google PlayIn an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that abortion clinics can sue over the controversial Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
While the law itself remains intact, justices ruled that providers have the right to challenge the law—known as Senate Bill 8— in federal court. The case will return to district court following the ruling, but it isn’t being seen as a huge win for abortion rights advocates, as it’s only allowing clinics to take things to court, and also limits which state officials can be sued.
As CNN reports, the decision on who can and can’t be sued isn’t enough to let clinics reopen their doors and resume services after the six weeks. This is due to a “novel enforcement mechanism” which allows citizens—from all across the country—to sue anyone who seeks an abortion after the six-week timeframe.
“The providers won in the sense that their challenge to SB8 is allowed to go forward against these state licensing officials, but more importantly, they lost in the sense that they can’t sue anyone else — so that even if their suit succeeds, it’s unlikely to provide them with the relief they need to reopen their doors, that is, to prevent future lawsuits against them for performing abortion,” CNN legal analyst Steve Vladeck said.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the court should’ve blocked the law when it went into effect, and that it should’ve “put an end to this madness months ago.” The law initially went into effect on a 5-4 vote on Sept. 1. And by a 5-4 vote, the court said that the providers couldn’t sue state court clerks.
“If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a dissent.
On Friday, the court also dissmissed a challenge by the Justice Department against the six-week abortion ban. President Biden called the initial September decision an “unprecedented assault” on women’s rights, per The Washington Post.
