Biden asks Supreme Court to temporarily stop Texas abortion law

UPDATE (10/18/21): The Biden administration’s Justice Department officially asked the Supreme Court to block the controversial Texas abortion law Monday, after a judge order pausing enforcement of the law only lasted 48 hours.

In its plea to the court, the Department wrote the law defies past Supreme Court rulings “by banning abortion long before viability — indeed, before many women even realize they are pregnant”.

“The question now is whether Texas’ nullification of this Court’s precedents should be allowed to continue while the courts consider the United States’ suit,” the department wrote. “As the district court recognized, it should not”.

The administration also noted the court could do a full review of the Texas law and rule on its constitutionality this term. This, despite the fact that not even lower courts have done that yet, and the Supreme Court rarely steps in this early in a lawsuit.

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UPDATE (10/15/21): A day after a successful appeal to a judge order block the controversial Texas abortion law, the Biden administration announced it will ask the Supreme Court to halt the law. Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley did not say how quickly this would happen. The court has already allowed the law’s restrictions to take effect once, but did so without ruling on the law’s constitutionality.

It comes after a federal appeals panel in New Orleans allowed the restrictions to remain in place for a third time in the last several weeks alone.

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Original Story (10/7/21): A federal judge in Texas ordered the state to suspend its newly-enacted abortion law Wednesday night. The video above shows the White House’s response to the order.

The temporary measure prevents state court judges and clerks from accepting lawsuits. The order is the first legal blow to Senate Bill 8, which until now had withstood a wave of early challenges.