It is illegal pursuant to this Texas statute, but there is no redress for any violation of it except through the vigilante civil lawsuits. And if those vigilante lawsuits are themselves unconstitutional – which I am confident they are – then there is no consequence for violating the statute. And no consequences means do whatever the hell you want to do.
Here’s a thought worth having. Does this unconstitutional and unenforceable heartbeat bill supersede Texas’s previous statutory ban on abortions past 20 weeks? I think there is a good chance it does, So after the hearbeat ban gets struck down, somebody needs to sue the state for a declaratory judgment that the 20 week ban has been repealed.
These idiots really did not think things through very well.
The states, not the AMA, are in the business of licensing doctors. And it’s not a licensing issue just to violate a nominal law.
Unfortunately, in Texas’ elected judges milieu, one can always find a partisan judge somewhere to rubber stamp any atrocious thing you want rubber stamped.
Thanks for this conversation, you have been more than patient. I submit to your years of training and practice. I enjoy your input on this and other topics.
How does this bounty system differ from the incentives offered to whistleblowers by the SEC and other government agencies? I once worked for a company that defrauded consumers. I resigned and contacted an attorney. She had me give written statements about my knowledge of the fraud. An SEC attorney contacted me and interviewed me. After a couple years the company was hit with a big fine. I got a very small percentage of the fine, paid directly due to my participation in exposing the fraud.
To try to find a sliver of silver lining in this dark, dark cloud, I have long thought that a substantive attack on Roe would be the Bridge Too Far that galvanizes a backlash against the Taliban element here in the US.
I think the storm coming over this will dwarf Ida.
…are the number of Denounce and Report actions that I hope will skyrocket to a delicious degree. There’s nothing stopping anyone, even those outside the state, from reporting on someone, so I just might enter some random names with addresses in Tejas and fill out the form.
Even though they’ve opposed Roe v. Wade publicly, many top national Republicans haven’t taken any sort of victory lap or even openly acknowledged the ruling so far: not GOP chair Ronna McDaniel, not the official GOP Twitter account, not even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has said anything about his home state’s successful torpedoing of the precedent. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has offered a single gesture of support in the form of retweeting ex. Sen Orrin Hatch’s (R-UT) post claiming that Hillary Clinton’s criticism of the law was “completely incorrect.” That’s it.
And yet McDaniel, the national GOP, and Cornyn have all given full-throated defenses of Texas’ voter suppression law in the past 48 hours, so it’s not like they’re reluctant to speak on controversial legislation in the Lone Star State.
We keep saying that - the storm over this will dwarf [whatever]. It was said about the two impeachment investigations and the Mueller report.
I’ve been standing, waiting, with an umbrella (and a canoe) for two years now.
@emiliano - the party the GQP threw over this last night in the basement of Cosmo Pizza probably caused enough hangovers that they haven’t all awakened yet to the light of day… LOL!!!
Recovery for whistleblowers is a cut of the settlement or judgment proceeds received by the government, which has its own right to recover against the wrongdoing entity. In some other kinds of cases, the government authorizes individuals to sue on behalf of the government, with the plaintiff again taking a share of the recovery that otherwise belongs to the government. If the State of Texas had actual damages from a post-heartbeat abortion, it probably could have allowed private actors to seek damages on behalf of the state. But neither the state nor the plaintiff has any cognizable damages when a woman gets an abortion, which is why they tried to deploy a vigilante bounty instead. It’s the lack of cognizable injury that means no plaintiffs under this scheme have any standing to pursue a case.
are the number of Denounce and Report actions that I hope will skyrocket to a delicious degree. There’s nothing stopping anyone, even those outside the state, from reporting on someone, so I just might enter some random names with addresses in Tejas and fill out the form
The Tik Tockers are already on it. Apparently they loaded up the reporting site with thousands of Shrek images and giving false names and locations to investigate. Love those kids,
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