harassment. there has been an idea that the justice department could try to intervene in these cases where abortion providers were sued by private parties. you know, i think the supreme court let this law go into effect, it really signaled where the law is headed. i think the only answer really to this is fights at the state level and political these political fights now if roe v. wade appears to be on the way out as the supreme court indicated by voting 5-4 to let this law go into effect. it means in all 50 states it will be up to the state legislators and up to the governors and that s where the fight is going to be now because it looks like the federal courts are lost on this. jeffrey toobin, wendy davis,
out as we see this law go into effect. it is worth noting that the reproductive rights group that challenged this law in the federal court sued in state court, texas right to life. the court has enjoined the enforcement of that law as to texas right to life. unclear whether that injunction actually applies to the range of prospective plaintiffs and litigants that are encompassed here. anyone can sue anyone and they might need a separate injunction every single time. this law is fine dishly clever in being able to avoid the typical enforcement and injunction mechanism many as mechanisms where it applies in supreme court precedent. but, dahlia, it may have the desired effect because people don t want to face a $10,000 fine or more for being involved in this thing. for particularly women who do not have a lot of means, this will have the chilling effect necessary. we ve already seen that.
to challenge that until you can figure out a way to challenge the constitutionality of the law? is that what they were saying? yeah, i think that that s fair. this was a motion for injunction to keep the statue from going into effect. the court in this one paragraph, unsigned order we get from the supreme court because it is a shadow docket case, they essentially throw their hands up in the air and say, well, for a litigant to show that we should enjoin the statute they have to prove that they have a substantial chance of success on the merits. because the texas legislature did something so unprecedented in the way that they subjected this law on the public with essentially with civilian vigilante enforcement, we have never seen this before. we re not sure that the plaintiffs will win when they challenge this. we have no option other than to let this law go into effect. it is really, i think, in many ways a very sad, disingenuous ruling from the five justices
legislation. it was potentially designed to try to skirt judicial review, and now the supreme court has rewarded that cynicism and let this law go into effect. this law is enforced by private citizens to try and potentially get around roe. what it means is texas has been able to escape legal action through our courts. it s so broad. the phrasing is provides or induces an abortion or aids and abets someone in providing or inducing an abortion. what does that mean? it could be a mom dropping her daughter off at a clinic or a sexual assault worker offering assistance to the victim. how concerned are you about the future of roe v. wade? i m incredibly concerned, and i think anyone who s paying
it is possible that the supreme court having been asked will eventually get around to dealing with this case. but it certainly hasn t happened yet. and they may not issue a stay. they may simply say, well, we ll hear this in the due course. but the status quo now is abortion is illegal in texas. the supreme court is also hearing a case out of out of mississippi in the usual course of business where they are where mississippi issued a similar draconian ban, and they are going to decide whether that is constitutional. that seems to be the vehicle to decide the fate of roe v. wade once and for all. but i think it is fair to at least assume that the fact that they let this law go into effect is that there are at least five justices who think it s okay for texas to ban abortion. we ll see. jeff, thanks.