AG Merrick Garland will be announcing a "civil enforcement action" at 2:30pm. Release doesn't specify what it's about, but @sgurman broke last night that legal action is imminent re: Texas's abortion ban, so stay tuned. Live stream will be here: justice.gov/live
DOJ's "civil enforcement action" presser was set for 2:30pm, live stream page updated to say 2:45pm, now says 3pm. There is a case docketed in WD-TX for United States v. Texas involving a constitutional claim, but nothing to 100% confirm it's about SB 8. So that's where we are.
NOW: DOJ is suing Texas over SB 8, the state's 6-week abortion ban, case is live: s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2106…
More to come shortly, stay tuned
AG Merrick Garland is now up announcing the lawsuit against Texas: "The act is clearly unconstitutional"
Story, with more to come: The Justice Department is suing Texas over the state's 6-week abortion ban.
Attorney General Merrick Garland: "The act is clearly unconstitutional."
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
DOJ wants a judge to declare SB 8 unconstitutional and block Texas and its "agents" — aka private citizens that the law deputizes to sue abortion providers and others involved in aiding abortion access — from taking action buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
DOJ's lawsuit against Texas argues that the private citizens authorized to sue to enforce SB 8 become an arm of the state, and that gives the feds legal grounds to go to court and get an injunction against Texas and its "agents" buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
The DOJ suit features a sweeping argument that the fed govt has an interest in protecting the rights of people to vindicate their constitutional rights, but also a more nuanced arg that SB 8 in fact interferes with federal govt functions in Texas buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
The suit lists examples of federal govt functions affected by SB 8, incl:
- federal program where contractors must provide abortion services
- federal prisons where incarcerated people have a right to an abortion
- DoD facilities that perform abortions buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
A few other things to note: DOJ designated its new SB 8 lawsuit as "related" to the earlier constitutional challenge filed by abortion providers. This would mean the new case is assigned to the same judge, who had rejected Texas et al.'s efforts to get the first case dismissed
DOJ quotes from Roe v. Wade about the Constitution protecting a "woman's decision" about whether to get an abortion, and then includes a footnote making clear this case covers all pregnant people who want an abortion, regardless of gender identity
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