September 2, 2021

The Supreme Court unleashed a tempest by letting Texas’ near-total abortion ban take effect this week, allowing private citizens to sue anyone they suspect of helping a pregnant person access the procedure.

Hours after justices issued their 5-4 decision early Thursday, top Republicans in Florida, Arkansas and South Dakota said they were examining how the law’s unique “private right of action” enforcement structure could be used for look-alike abortion bans in their own states. Meanwhile, opponents of the Texas law said it’s sowing legal uncertainty across the country and warned it could be adapted for a range of other issues, such as gun control and Covid mask and vaccine mandates.

Yet the law could be struck down by courts long before the red state legislatures reconvene, if abortion rights groups can successfully show that people are being injured by the way the law cuts off access to the procedure. That would require finding people willing to intentionally violate the ban and be plaintiffs in a challenge before the most conservative circuit court in the country and the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority.

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