When I have time, I want to dig into that more. If I recall correctly, and I may not, the State of Colorado didn’t raise the issue of standing in the original trial, and because it was the defendants who appealed, it didn’t come up on appeal, either. If that’s the case, I don’t think SCOTUS could have considered standing. My question is why didn’t Colorado raise that issue originally? Were they overconfident they would prevail? Did they not fully investigate the plaintiffs?
Honestly, this is one of the occasional flaws in our judicial system. You can’t bring up new issues on appeal, and you usually can’t even introduce new facts on appeal. Appeals are generally only for issues of law, and if you didn’t bring them up in the original trial, you usually can’t bring them up on appeal.
In addition to all the other ways already mentioned that this is F*&^%ed up, these so-called right-to-lifers ignore this (from NYT article about this latest horrible legal move):
Lawyers for Dr. Karsan have said in legal filings that she believes her patient’s abortion is medically necessary to preserve her health and future fertility.
So, current health of the mother and her future fertility doesn’t matter, just forced cruelty now…Typical hypocrisy and horror from these monsters.
Devine was an anti-abortion activist in the 1980s.[1] At a June 2012 rally, Devine said he had been arrested 37 times for protesting at abortion clinics.[1]
In 2004, Devine was sued for his refusal to take down a painting of The Ten Commandments on display in his Harris County courtroom. The case drew national attention.[1]
Devine and his wife continued a high-risk pregnancy for their seventh child even though the pregnancy was likely to cause the death of both the mother and the child, according to Devine. His wife survived the pregnancy but the child died an hour after birth.[1]
The woman WANTS the birth, but it’s not viable. Forcing her to go through with it might kill her, and will probably render her unable to ever have children again. Even for the forced-birthers, this is directly opposite of their stated intentions. But we know they are liars, and the cruelty is the real point.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s not forget there are some truly progressive people in Texas as well. The major demographic changes in the past few years also means that real change COULD happen. Unfortunately, the GOP has deeply gerrymandered the state to protect their own interests. Texas really isn’t too far behind my state in shifting to at least purple, if not blue. Hence the hard right shift and attempts to retain power by the GOP by using culture war politics.
No one should stay where they don’t want to be, or where they don’t feel safe, but i kind of feel like Charles Blow is onto something about a reverse migration to southern states by Black Americans.
Of course, he puts it into an argument about Black power, but I very much see Black empowerment being good for those of us who are white and wish to have a more progressive, democratic (small d), and responsive government. Over and over, we’ve seen how control of southern states translates into greater national power.
To that point, Texas in particular has been broadly trending more and more Democratic in recent decades so it would be such a shame to give up on the state now that it may be closer to flipping blue than it has been at any time since the early 1970s.
Or as a similarly long-term solution that’s not irrevocable, people could oppose his next attempt to delay his securities fraud trial (he was indicted on those charges eight years ago.) If he gets convicted, from what I’ve read he could face decades in prison.
Barring that, if doctors do perform the abortion and the Asshole General charges them, the doctors’ lawyers should move to delay and delay their trial for as long as Paxton has delayed his trial (using Paxton’s own motions as precedent.) Hopefully sometime before eight years from now Texas’s government will have changed and the new AG will drop the charges.
Except, of course, that American Conservative Christianity is blatantly on the side of evil. They don’t even try to hide it. Like the cruelty, it’s THE POINT.
