A federal judge denied a Biden administration request to expedite the hearing in its case against a Texas abortion law that took effect at the beginning of September.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman issued a one-page order on Thursday after the Justice Department asked the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to approve a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction to impede the “unprecedented” law that bans most abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy and would allow individuals to bring a civil action against anyone who performs or “aids or abets” such a procedure. The administration wanted the date for a hearing Pitman, currently set for Oct. 1, moved up to Sept. 21.
“[T]his case presents complex, important questions of law that merit a full opportunity for the parties to present their positions to the Court,” Pitman wrote. “Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that the United States’ Opposed Motion for Expedited Briefing Schedule, (Dkt. 13), is DENIED,” he added.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES TEXAS OVER ABORTION BAN
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 on Sept. 2 to allow Texas’s law to stay in place on procedural grounds, not on the basis of the law’s legal merits, denying an emergency appeal from abortion providers to block it based on Roe v. Wade and other precedents.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a lawsuit against Texas last week on the heels of outrage by many prominent Democrats, including President Joe Biden.
Garland said the intention of the law “is to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights by thwarting judicial review for as long as possible.”
