HOUSTON – US President Joe Biden’s administration plans to ask the Supreme Court to block Texas’ new law banning near-all abortions, according to local media reports on Friday (Oct. 15).
“The Justice Department (DOJ) intends to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the preliminary injunction against Texas Senate Bill 8,” Anthony Coley, a spokesman for the department, told The Hill in an email.
The Biden administration argues that the private enforcement regime is a transparent attempt to shield what they see as a blatantly unconstitutional ban and that if the scheme were allowed to stand, could allow states to undermine other constitutional rights in similar ways, according to The Hill’s report.
A three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 late Thursday (Oct. 14) night that the state law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy can remain in effect while it hears the Biden administration’s legal challenge.
The high court will hear in December another case over a Mississippi abortion restriction that is directly challenging the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortions. (Xinhua) – bny
