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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSomething I don't understand about this insane Texas abortion law
It's the most twisted concept of "standing" I can think of. That pretty much anyone, anywhere can be considered to have standing to file one of these lawsuits against someone else, without any personal stake in the possible abortion other than not liking women getting abortions.
If that's accepted, is there any limit on the number of people who can sue? Can one person be sued over and over and over again by hundreds of people objecting to a possible abortion?
littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)MissMillie
(38,553 posts)to sue other private citizens (where there was none before) for committing this "crime."
As for how many people can sue, that's a good question. I haven't read the law, so, I don't know.
I wonder if this opens the door for a private citizen to sue another private citizen for robbing a bank, or for public drunkenness, or for auto theft...
femmedem
(8,201 posts)If anyone can sue someone for abetting an abortion, it opens the door to anyone suing for greenhouse gas emissions.
cbabe
(3,541 posts)Irish_Dem
(46,967 posts)Seems like an unreasonable punishment to me.
Mad_Machine76
(24,411 posts)to see how this all plays out. Most average people don't even have the knowledge or experience to file a lawsuit and see it adjudicated and that if a bunch of lawsuits get filed, I am curious to see how the court system is able to handle the potential flood of cases. My thought is that this law is intended more as a deterrent to people having or providing abortions.
Irish_Dem
(46,967 posts)Beginning attorneys might split the bounty.
Right, it might be more a way to scare people.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)Just another lie.
orwell
(7,771 posts)...can I sue evangelicals for their climate change denial?
Of course not.
This is why I have never trusted the legal system. It is mostly dependent on those who sit in judgement, not in the facts of the case. I would never trust judgement of my actions to my fellow citizens. I have served as a jury foreman and I was wholly unimpressed with both the lawyers who tried the case and the jury who was to decide it. The case should have never been brought by the DA in the first place. It was brought to harass a gang member who the cops didn't like. None of us liked him. But the case was completely without merit. They wasted 2 days of our time just to fuck with this asshole.
When choices for the Supreme Court now represent ideologies rather than legal scholarship or a high level of logical reasoning, the entire court system is exposed for the sham it is. It all becomes an exercise in semantics to justify your preconceived view of the world.
Why is it that we basically know how the judges are going to vote? Have you ever asked yourself that question?
When I put this question to a friend of mine that clerked for an appeals court judge he just shrugged and said "that's our legal system and it's the best in the world."
Really?
I would hate to see the worst...
maxrandb
(15,323 posts)How about my neighbor that attends the local Catholic Church?
If someone can sue a person who gives a ride to an abortion clinic, can't I sue every person that attends Catholic church?
orwell
(7,771 posts)...sounds like a plan.
marybourg
(12,622 posts)Dirty Socialist
(3,252 posts)Hardly anyone is going to snitch on their neighbor about this. And if anyone does (which I doubt), the accused will go to court to overrule it.
Captain Zero
(6,805 posts)and throw a lawsuit at them.
Dirty Socialist
(3,252 posts)Rudyg doesnt live in Texas. And if he did, he would be living in a gated community.
dsc
(52,160 posts)nor do you have to be one, to be sued.
leftieNanner
(15,084 posts)Anti-abortion fundie lunatics will line up around Women's Healthcare Clinics and photograph license plates all day long.
And if they target a lower income person who can't afford to fight in court (take days off work, hire a lawyer, etc.) they will win every time.
I think it may work in the short term - but Texas Republicans may have opened a can of worms that might come back and cause unforeseen problems. We can hope anyway.
I also hope a court will stop this law.
ret5hd
(20,491 posts)I think my spouse and I will now be frequent visitors at our area Planned Parenthood sites.
Buckeyeblue
(5,499 posts)Each person who files a suit should be couter-sued. That should be the strategy.
Captain Zero
(6,805 posts)If they give standing for this abortion law wouldn't they have to give standing for anything?
Buckeyeblue
(5,499 posts)What if millions of people filed suit against the governor's wife?
0rganism
(23,944 posts)raised it last night in a fit of insomnia: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215807138
Could a state simply declare voter registration drives openly actionable?
Seems to me we've headed into some uncharted legal spaces here, the courts need to weigh in with more than silence and quick dismissals.
hamsterjill
(15,220 posts)So, I know women in Texas who have gotten abortions. Do they need to fear being exposed now? Some money hungry jerk going after them?
Next up - - -I don't like the way you're raising your teenage son. You are allowing him to hang around with another teen who is openly gay. Can I sue you? (Example only, of course. Can't believe I feel like I need to clarify but I do.)
There is no end to the ludicrous!
sl8
(13,749 posts)Not multiple penalties, anyway.
https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB8/id/2395961
[...]
(c) Notwithstanding Subsection (b), a court may not award
relief under this section in response to a violation of Subsection
(a)(1) or (2) if the defendant demonstrates that the defendant
previously paid the full amount of statutory damages under
Subsection (b)(2) in a previous action for that particular abortion
performed or induced in violation of this subchapter, or for the
particular conduct that aided or abetted an abortion performed or
induced in violation of this subchapter.
[...]
I guess they're trying to slightly limit the insanity of this bill to help protect it from being overturned, but, even totally aside from Roe v. Wade precedent, I just can't see how this concept of standing can be constitutional.
There might not be specific language in the US constitution regarding standing, but the courts have long enforced historical standards of jurisprudence as well, and by those standards, this seems to me a completely unworkable concept of standing.