I wish this were true, but it isn't. All that happened tonight is that the Texas Supreme Court left in place lower-court rulings that had *temporarily* blocked the Governor's mandate ban. And that ruling was only because the State skipped a step in trying to appeal those rulings.
Nothing prevents the Governor from seeking the same relief first from the Court of Appeals, and then going right back to #SCOTX (which already sided with him in cases from Dallas and Bexar Counties) if he doesn't get it:

Nor does the new TEA guidance mean that @GovAbbott is dropping enforcement, as I explain here:

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Steve Vladeck

Steve Vladeck Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @steve_vladeck

7 Sep
1. Now that a lot more people are paying attention to #SCOTUS's "shadow docket," here's a quick #thread on what, exactly, people *mean* when they use that term — and why, even before Wednesday's #SB8 ruling, it's been a source of increasing controversy over the past few years:
2. The term was coined by @WilliamBaude in 2015 as a catch-all for just about everything #SCOTUS does *other* than decide the big "merits" cases it hears each Term — in which it receives multiple rounds of briefing; holds oral argument; and hands down lengthy, signed opinions.
3. The "merits" docket includes only ~70 cases per Term. As @AdamSFeldman has shown, there's been a sharp decline in these cases in recent years. During its October 2019 Term, the Court handed down 53 decisions in such cases (the fewest since 1862); this Term, there were only 56.
Read 15 tweets
4 Sep
I had missed this, but there’s a new cert. petition from Lisa Blatt asking #SCOTUS to overrule its 1971 decision in Bivens — and make it absolutely impossible for victims of constitutional violations by federal officers to sue those officers for damages:

supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/2…
Last year, in Hernández v. Mesa (in which I represented Hernández), a 5-4 majority refused to recognize a *new* Bivens claim, but only two of the Justices would’ve discarded Bivens altogether, leaving it in place for ordinary constitutional violations by law enforcement officers.
If the Court takes the additional step of overruling it, that would erase even the specter of potential liability for constitutional violations by federal officers — and, thus, the deterrent effect on which the Court had defended the doctrine for at least the last 27 years.
Read 4 tweets
2 Sep
Just a reminder that back in April, the very same 5-4 #SCOTUS majority flat-out *ignored* procedural obstacles to issue an emergency injunction that blocked California's #COVID-based restrictions on in-home gatherings based upon a *new* interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause.
The ruling in Tandon v. Newsom should've been possible only if the right was "indisputably clear." It wasn't, but the Court issued an injunction anyway. Tonight, the Court refused to protect the "indisputably clear" right to an abortion because of *possible* procedural obstacles.
When you put these rulings by the same 5-4 majority side-by-side, you see much of what's wrong with the Texas decision: A Court untroubled by procedure went out of its way to expand religious liberty, but hid behind procedural Qs to refuse to enforce a right already on the books.
Read 4 tweets
1 Sep
It's 12:01 CDT here in Texas. #SCOTUS has not acted.

That means #SB8 — the most restrictive abortion law since Roe — is now in effect, and that virtually *all* abortions in Texas after the sixth week of pregnancy (when many women do not even *know* they're pregnant) are illegal.
Despite what some will say, this isn't the "end" of Roe.

*No* court, from the district court to #SCOTUS, has ruled on whether #SB8's substantive restriction on abortions is even constitutional.

And courts may yet put SB8 on hold — perhaps as early as later on Wednesday.
But until and unless a court blocks #SB8, it will effectively end abortions after the sixth week across Texas; and the fact that #SCOTUS is *letting that happen* is a pretty ominous harbinger of what's likely to come down the road, whether in this case, Dobbs, or another.

/end
Read 6 tweets
31 Aug
At some point, it’s worth stepping back and having a broader conversation about the frequency with which #SCOTUS is deciding incredibly significant questions on incredibly tight schedules. This is now the third very different emergency in the past week—all with huge consequences.
Some of it, as I’ve written at too much length, is about the Justices’ increasing willingness to issue emergency relief (and parties taking advantage of that). But there’s a broader problem here—with rules governing timing of litigation and the creation of artificial emergencies.
Take the Texas abortion law. Yes, it goes into effect tomorrow, but it was enacted over the summer, and the lawsuit now at #SCOTUS was filed in mid-July. There are doctrinal reasons why it took this long to get to this point, but maybe those rules are part of the problem, too.
Read 4 tweets
31 Aug
1. Absent intervention from #SCOTUS or the Fifth Circuit, #SB8 — which prohibits most abortions in Texas after the 6th week of pregnancy — goes into effect tomorrow.

Here's a quick #thread on how the law is cynically and deliberately designed to make such intervention *harder*:
2. If all the bill did was ban most abortions in Texas, it would be easy enough for courts to block it while constitutional challenges are sorted out. Indeed, that's what's happened in other states that tried to adopt similarly aggressive restrictions on pre-viability abortions.
3. But the bill also leaves enforcement entirely to private parties, and not to the State. Most have seen this as a cynical ploy designed to turn neighbors against each other with regard to abortions, as @tribelaw and I described in the @nytimes in July:

nytimes.com/2021/07/19/opi…
Read 10 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(