Politics
Texas Supreme Court Shuts Down Final Challenge to Abortion Law
The Texas Supreme Court docket on Friday successfully shut down a federal problem to the state’s novel and controversial ban on abortion after about six weeks of being pregnant, closing off what abortion rights advocates stated was their final, slim path to blocking the brand new regulation.
The choice was the newest in a line of blows to the constitutional proper to abortion that has prevailed for 5 many years.
The Texas regulation, which a number of states are trying to repeat, places enforcement within the fingers of civilians. It gives the prospect of $10,000 rewards for profitable lawsuits towards anybody — from an Uber driver to a health care provider — who “aids or abets” a girl who will get an abortion as soon as fetal cardiac exercise could be detected.
It’s the most restrictive abortion regulation within the nation, and flies within the face of the Supreme Court docket’s landmark 1973 determination in Roe v. Wade, which prohibits states from banning the process earlier than a fetus is viable outdoors the womb, which is presently about 23 weeks of being pregnant.
By empowering on a regular basis individuals and expressly banning enforcement by state officers, the regulation, often called S.B. 8, was designed to flee judicial assessment in federal courtroom. Advocates of abortion rights had requested the Supreme Court docket to dam it even earlier than it took impact final September. The justices repeatedly declined, and stated that as a result of state officers weren’t liable for implementing the regulation it couldn’t be challenged in federal courtroom based mostly on the constitutional protections established by Roe.
However the Supreme Court docket left open the smallest of home windows, saying in December that opponents of the regulation might file swimsuit towards Texas medical licensing officers, who may self-discipline abortion suppliers who violate the regulation.
On Friday, the justices of the Texas Supreme Court docket, all Republicans, stated that these officers didn’t, the truth is, have any energy to implement the regulation, “both straight or not directly,” and so couldn’t be sued.
The justices stated the regulation had successfully tied their fingers. They agreed that the state’s licensing officers had the authority to self-discipline suppliers for violating different abortion restrictions. “However we conclude that the Heartbeat Act expressly offers in any other case,” the courtroom stated, utilizing the title of S.B. 8.
“The act’s emphatic, unambiguous and repeated provisions” declare {that a} personal civil motion is the “unique” methodology for implementing the regulation, the justices wrote. They added, “These provisions deprive the state-agency executives of any authority they could in any other case should implement the necessities via a disciplinary motion.”
“We can’t rewrite the statute,” the justices wrote.
“With this ruling, the sliver of this case that we had been left with is gone,” stated Nancy Northup, the president of the Heart for Reproductive Rights.
Texas’ legal professional normal, Ken Paxton, declared it a “main victory.”
“This measure, which has saved hundreds of unborn infants, stays absolutely in impact, and the pro-abortion plaintiffs’ lawsuit towards the state is basically completed,” he wrote on Twitter.
Abortion rights supporters and authorized students stated the Texas regulation would encourage different states not solely to move comparable bans on abortion, however to try to nullify different precedents they oppose.
The regulation permits no exceptions for abortion even within the case of girls who’ve been raped or are victims of incest. It has thrown Texas abortion suppliers into disaster, and comparable laws is pending across the nation.
The Supreme Court docket is contemplating a Mississippi regulation that bans abortion after 15 weeks of being pregnant, and in oral arguments in December, the six conservative justices on the courtroom appeared inclined to uphold that regulation.
A number of justices indicated that they might vote to overturn Roe v. Wade outright, as Mississippi has requested. And attorneys for abortion rights teams argued that even when the courtroom solely upholds the Mississippi regulation, it could successfully overturn Roe due to its central holding on viability.
Already, state legislatures are advancing bans on abortion as if Roe had been overturned. Some have handed outright bans on abortion which are to take impact instantly if the courtroom guidelines to overturn Roe even “partly,” and others have ready to ban the process at six, 10, 12 and 15 weeks.
Authorized consultants stated the courtroom’s determination on Friday would additional embolden states to enact aggressive measures to limit abortions.
Probably the most restrictive within the nation. The Texas abortion regulation, often called Senate Invoice 8, quantities to a virtually full ban on abortion within the state. It prohibits most abortions after about six weeks and makes no exceptions for pregnancies ensuing from incest or rape. The regulation has been in place since Sept. 1.
Perceive the Texas Abortion Legislation
“The mixture of the U.S. Supreme Court docket and Texas Supreme Court docket rulings on this distinctive regulation signifies that different states are going to see this as a option to insulate their very own legal guidelines from judicial assessment,” stated David S. Cohen, a regulation professor at Drexel College.
The improvements of the Texas regulation — its civilian enforcement and bounty system — could possibly be tailored to protect different kinds of legal guidelines, together with ones making it against the law to journey to a different state for an abortion or to acquire abortion medication within the mail, stated Mary Ziegler, a regulation professor and historian at Florida State College. Tennessee lawmakers have proposed a invoice permitting civilian enforcement of a ban on the supply of abortion capsules.
“If conservative states need to do issues that will not look constitutional even to this Supreme Court docket, they will use a bounty system to realize that,” Professor Ziegler stated. “The message despatched by the Texas litigation was that when you have issues that you just may lose a constitutional problem, that shouldn’t maintain you again. As a result of you should use this highway map to maintain the case out of federal courtroom totally.”
Kimberlyn Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Texas Proper to Life, stated abortion opponents believed they had been seeing actual features after many years of chipping away on the constitutional proper to an abortion.
“We’ve identified that this lawsuit all alongside was simply invalid and may have been dismissed, and now the truth that we’re on that trajectory now could be encouraging,” Ms. Schwartz stated, including that the motion “isn’t going to let our foot off the gasoline but.”
Amy Hagstrom Miller, the chief govt of Complete Lady’s Well being, the clinic that sued to cease S.B. 8, stated “the courts have failed us.”
“This ban doesn’t change the necessity for abortion in Texas, it simply blocks individuals from accessing the care they want,” she stated. “The state of affairs is changing into more and more dire,” she stated, as the encircling states move their very own restrictions.
Knowledge launched in February reveals that the Texas regulation minimize the variety of abortions within the state by 60 p.c. Deliberate Parenthood clinics in neighboring states have reported an 800 p.c improve in girls looking for abortions. However that avenue, too, is prone to shut quickly.
Many ladies have traveled to Oklahoma for the process, however this week the State Senate handed its personal six-week ban modeled on the Texas regulation. The Idaho Senate handed an identical regulation final week. Lawmakers in different states have proposed comparable bans, however have held off in hopes that the Supreme Court docket determination, anticipated in June, will enable them to ban abortion totally.
Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting.
Politics
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.”
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.
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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.
Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.
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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.
He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.”
“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”
The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration.
In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.
The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.
Politics
Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”
Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”
Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.
In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”
“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.
Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.
The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.
Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”
The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.
One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
Politics
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously.
“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family.
“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”
Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump.
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“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”
Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.
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The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”
Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.
Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family.
Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”
“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”
Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”
“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”
The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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