other than district, barbara mcquaid. walk us through both sides of the case. what texas hoped to do was build a law that was challenge proof, that couldn t be the subject of a challenge in federal court. and today the supreme court opened the door to those very kinds of challenges. did find some ching in the armor of the law. it bans abortion after six weeks, but it doesn t say that state officials are the ones who enforce it. the enforcement mechanism is allowing anybody anywhere to sue any abortion provider. now, the question was if the texas authorities weren t going to enforce it, then who do you sue? that s what the supreme court case was about. the court unanimously said you can t sue state court judges. they don t enforce anything. by a 5 -4 ruling the court said by the way, chief justice roberts with liberals. by a 5 -4 ruling the court said you can t sue state court clerks
is there another angle to take. if this is what the courts are saying how you do it, you have no chase if you re on the abortion rights side of things? well, i think one thing that is very important here is that the court did find there is somebody that you can sue. in this instance, t the medical board. the case remains alive. what troubles me the most is as we speak at this moment, abortion is still illegal in the state of texas after six weeks in direct violation of roe v. wade. the last time i checked, that s still the law of the land. i think one of the key lines in all of this is the dissent by sotomayor. she wrote i trust the district court will act expeditiously to enter much-needed relief. i think that is a hint to the district courts who enjoined this law immediately. i think you can do it as early as today. that means we re back to the presb-8 landscape where this law is not on the books until they are successful in their lawsuits. i hope we see that happen as
soon as today. all right. so barbara, walk me through what you expect to see happen. so they now refile the suit. finding somebody to sue. this starts in district court? yeah. so they had already sued this one remaining defendant who we go back to the district court where the court was filed. a judge robert pitman who had the case before and demonstrated hostility to sb-8. i think it s likely the judge will follow the law and enjoin the statute while the case makes its way through the courts. they ll work through it there. the circuits will send it back to the supreme court. the key money question, of course, is by the time this case works its way up to the supreme court, we will defer the decision on dobs which might overturn roe v. wade. that was my question back to pete. given everything that we just outlined of the trajectory of
or the attorney general, but by an 8-1 vote with only justice thomas saying you can sue the members of the state medical board that license clinics. it leaves open for challengers to go back to federal court and try to get this law overturned. this case was not about the abortion right. it was simply about the structure of the texas law. and the other disappointment for challengers of the law is the court left in place the order that allows texas to continue to enforce the ban while the lawsuits proceed. well, i guess that s the part, pete. what s the rationale for that? well, the court didn t say much about it other than because they re only saying we re going to allow the lawsuits to proceed, we don t know how they re going to come out. so for now, there s no reason to shut the law down. that seems to be the court s logic. barbara, how would you argue this?
this case now, when is realistic? when is it realistic the supreme court gets it again? well, remember there s also a separate i m going to delay my answer to your question just slightly by adding one other element here. there is another set of lawsuits that this this case in the supreme court was all about whether you can sue in federal court. there s a whole bunch of other lawsuits already underway in state court. and just yesterday one of the judges there said this law is unconstitutional. so that is another pathway for the challengers here. but it could come back to the supreme court presumably in several months from now. i don t think it s going to come back unless the judge down there allows the abortion provider or the abortion providers to get a stay and block enforcement and the fifth circuit agrees. i don t think it s coming back in the supreme court quickly. barbara, if roe v. wade is upheld in some form, right, and there s always the one path that