A majority of the US Supreme Court seems open to hearing arguments against the controversial Texas abortion ban.
Two months after the law came into effect in Texas, the judges reviewed two separate legal challenges against the sweeping ban.
The first is a legal case from abortion providers against the ban. The second is a legal challenge by the Justice Department, in which it sued the state of Texas back in September in order to block the law.
The Texas law bans nearly all abortion in the state, imposing the country’s toughest and most sweeping abortion restrictions. It bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which is before most women know they are pregnant, and offers no exceptions for incest or rape. It also allows private citizens to sue anyone involved in the process.
The court had voted 5-4 on Sept. 1 to decline stopping the law from taking effect.
This time around, two conservative judges — Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — appeared to lean towards allowing the legal challenges proceed. Both were Trump nominees, and are considered anti-abortionists.
Kavanaugh said the Texas law exploited loopholes in the legal system and expressed concern over whether they needed to close that loophole. This loophole is that Texas does not directly enforce its new abortion ban: it allowed private citizens to sue other citizens aiding an abortion, whether the doctor, a pharmacist, or even an Uber driver. Typically restrictions against abortions are enforced by state officials.
Justices also expressed concern over the dangerous precedent it would set in allowing states to use similar types of enforcement to deny residents other constitutionally protected rights.
Between the two cases against the Texas ban, the judges seemed more likely to let the one issued by abortion providers proceed, but were more skeptical over the Justice Department’s suit.
Monday’s organ arguments exclusively examined whether the case could be challenged in federal court.
The court is set to hear a case on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban on Dec. 1. The Mississippi ban is considered a direct challenge to the Roe v. Wade precedent.
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