Challengers of the Texas law that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy are requesting that the U.S. Supreme Court intervene to allow a federal appeals court to send back the case to a district court judge who previously ruled that the law lacked constitutional standing.
The request marks the latest attempt by providers to revive their challenge to the S.B. 8 law, which allows private citizens to file lawsuits against practitioners who perform procedures after six weeks of gestation. The law was enacted in September, while the highest court issued a ruling allowing it to remain in effect last month with a limited scope for providers to sue against the measure.
Attorneys for the Center for Reproductive Rights accused the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals of unnecessary delay in the case and argued the dispute should be sent back to the District Court of Travis County, Texas, where a judge ruled in early October against the state law.
“Absent intervention by the Court, the Fifth Circuit is poised to entertain questions already decided by the Court in direct violation of this Court’s mandate and delay further resolution of this case in the district court by at least weeks, and potentially months or more,” wrote Marc Hearron, a lawyer for the providers, in court filings Monday.
SUPREME COURT WON’T HALT TEXAS ABORTION LAW, THOUGH CLINICS CAN STILL SUE
The 5th Circuit also issued a 2-1 decision on Oct. 14 allowing the restrictive law to remain in place before justices heard the case in December.
Present disputes center over whether the appeals court should return the providers’ case to the district court that ruled in their favor or whether the case can remain in the conservative-leaning 5th Circuit, which could take months before a resolution.
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Litigation against the Texas law has been playing out alongside another landmark case involving a ban on abortions in Mississippi after 15 weeks, in which the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court cast skepticism regarding the jurisprudence behind the 1973 case establishing abortion rights in the United States, Roe v. Wade.
Justices are expected to issue a ruling on the Mississippi case in June.
