Biden administration said Friday it would once again ask the Supreme Court to put a hold on the Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
The Justice Department intends to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit's injunction against Texas Senate Bill 8, said Anthony Coley, the department's chief spokesman.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit later rejected the Justice Department's request to lift a stay on an order by a federal judge in Texas that temporarily blocked the law.
Under the law, known as SB 8, the state takes no action to block abortion but allows anyone else to file a civil lawsuit against abortion providers. The law was designed to make it difficult for challenges in court.
The Justice Department stated that Texas cannot take away the right to abortion without providing a means to challenge the law in court. The federal judge agreed and directed judges in the state to take no action in response to any suits filed under the law.
The appeals court issued a temporary administrative stay on 8 Oct., which allowed Texas to put the law back into effect. Which shut down nearly all abortion providers in the state, forcing women seeking treatment to travel to other states.
On Thursday, the court issued a one-paragraph order that granted the request by Texas to keep a stay in place while it considers a full appeal of the lower court ruling. It said it was acting for the reasons referenced in its decision on an earlier challenge to the Law.
That ruling said that state courts cannot restrain the authority of federal courts to act on cases brought before them and questioned the Justice Department's authority to sue the state in the first place, given that the ban is enforced by private individuals and not state officials.
The Supreme Court declined in early September to block the law, saying the case presented several uncertainties, including whether the court had authority to act in the case.
We appreciate the Department of Justice asking the Supreme Court to intervene, and Planned Parenthood is hopeful that the Court will use this new opportunity to stop this law, which has already taken far too much from Texans, said Helene Krasnoff, vice president for public policy law and litigation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
In December, the justices will hear a challenge to Mississippi's law that would ban abortion after 15 weeks. That case presents a direct challenge to courts' abortion precedents, including Roe v Wade, which say states can't ban abortion before fetal viability.