#robert pitman

[oneequalworldblog]

Llano County: Censorship or Nothing

Llano County: Censorship or Nothing

Photo: Shutterstock Llano County, Texas, would rather have no libraries at all than allow books about gay people and racism to be on their shelves, after an order by a federal judge. The Llano County Library System, which has three libraries, replaced the elected members of their library board in 2021 with an board appointed by the Republican county commissioners. They immediately began a…

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[justinspoliticalcorner]

A Judge Blocked Texas’s 6-Week Abortion Ban

“This Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right,” Judge Robert Pitman wrote.

Zoe Tillman at BuzzFeed News:

WASHINGTON — The status of abortion access in Texas was once again thrown into uncertainty Wednesday night after a federal judge issued an order halting enforcement of the state’s 6-week abortion ban.

The immediate effect of US District Judge Robert Pitman’s ruling — and whether it will mean that providers can, or will, resume performing abortions — is uncertain. Texas is expected to swiftly petition the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to intervene and ask that court to put Pitman’s order on hold as quickly as possible, which would leave the law, SB 8, in place.

Pitman’s ruling came less than a week after he heard arguments on the Justice Department request for an injunction blocking the law. He refused to grant Texas’s request to pause his decision to allow state officials time to appeal, writing that Texas had “forfeited the right to any such accommodation by pursuing an unprecedented and aggressive scheme to deprive its citizens of a significant and well-established constitutional right.”

“From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” Pitman wrote. “That other courts may find a way to avoid this conclusion is theirs to decide; this Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right.”

[...]

SB 8 has been in effect since Sept. 1. It bans nearly all abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which typically occurs around the sixth week of a pregnancy. Pitman’s order bars any state actor from taking steps that would permit enforcement of the law, which deputizes private citizens to sue doctors suspected of performing abortions or other individuals suspected of helping a pregnant person obtain the procedure.

The judge made clear that his order prohibits any state court judge or clerk from accepting, processing, or taking any other action on the civil lawsuits that private individuals could bring under SB 8. He wrote that the court would have the power to issue a direct injunction that bars private individuals from bringing these types of suits, since they would be acting on behalf of the state, but he would not do so at this stage; he noted that his order blocking state courts from accepting such a case would restrict their ability to act.

[...]

SB 8 took effect at midnight on Sept. 1 after abortion providers failed to convince the US Supreme Court and a federal appeals court to stop that from happening while they pursued a constitutional challenge. Healthcare providers across the state immediately announced that they would comply with the law and stop performing abortions in cases where fetal cardiac activity could be detected, usually at the sixth week of pregnancy; providers have said 85 to 90% of abortions in the state take place after week 6.

Pregnancy terms are counted from the first day of a person’s most recent period, so six weeks is typically two weeks after a missed period, which is when many people first realize they’re pregnant. Early-term state abortion bans are often referred to as “heartbeat” laws but that term is misleading, since a fetus’s heart valves haven’t formed at that point; an ultrasound at that stage is detecting electrical activity.

With the abortion providers’ case held up in the 5th Circuit, the Justice Department filed its own constitutional challenge to the law on Sept. 9.

Unlike other early-term state abortion bans swiftly struck down by federal courts, the Texas law is unique in that it delegates enforcement to private citizens. Instead of authorizing a prosecutor to press charges or interfering with a clinic’s ability to get a license and operate, the law empowers individuals to file a civil lawsuit against a doctor they suspect of performing an abortion that’s now illegal in the state, or anyone who “aids or abets” that abortion — a category so broad that it could apply to a person or group that helped pay for the procedure, provided transportation to a clinic, or accompanied a patient.

Judge Robert Pitman issues a ruling halting the enforcement of the Texas 6-week abortion ban with a bounty-hunting provision. The state of Texas will appeal the ruling to the 5th Circuit Court.