Governor Gavin Newsom of California said he intends to leverage a contentious US Supreme Court decision on Texas’ tight abortion restrictions to draft legislation that would allow private persons to sue select gun makers, dealers, and retailers, Reuters reports.
The Texas legislation allowing private persons to sue anybody who performs or supports a woman in seeking an abortion after around six weeks of pregnancy was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday.
The Texas law was designed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to avoid normal means of legal challenge, because rather than making state officials responsible for enforcement, it instead gave private individuals anywhere the right to sue doctors who provide abortion services in Texas and anyone else who “aids or abets” the process.
While allowing the Texas law to remain in effect, the court ruled legal challenges may proceed against the measure, which critics say amounts to vigilante justice.
Newsom, a member of the Democratic party, stated Saturday that his team is cooperating closely with California State Attorney General Rob Bonta and the legislature to create a draft-proposal that would allow citizens to file lawsuits against manufacturers, suppliers, or distribution companies of assault weapons or ghost gun kits for at least $10,000 per infringement, in accordance with Texas law.
In a dissenting to Friday’s verdict, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor chastised the court’s plurality for having failed to “put an end to this madness” and suggested that other states would try to replicate Texas’ legal system.
President Joe Biden expressed “worry” at the efforts to keep the abortion ban in place, but found it “encouraging” that the court permitted portion of the abortion providers’ challenge to proceed.
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