Abortion law began in obscure Texas town with help from Scalia's former clerk

[dalton99a]

https://apnews.com/article/texas-us-supreme-court-laws-185e383ba4aa6cfc558231dcabd4104a

Origin story of the Texas law that could upend Roe v. Wade
By JESSICA GRESKO and PAUL J. WEBE


...

Texas’ abortion law S.B. 8 follows a model first used in Waskom to ban abortion within its boundaries in 2019. The novel legal approach used by the city on Texas’ border with Louisiana is one envisioned by a former top lawyer for the state.

Right to Life East Texas director Mark Lee Dixon, 36, a Southern Baptist minister, championed Waskom’s abortion ban. Through his state senator, Bryan Hughes, he met Jonathan F. Mitchell, a former top lawyer for the state of Texas. Mitchell became his attorney and advised him on crafting the ordinance, Dixon said in an interview.

Mitchell, 45, has spent the last 15 years moving back and forth between working in government and teaching at law schools such as Stanford and the University of Texas at Austin. A graduate of Wheaton College and the University of Chicago Law School, he was a law clerk to the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

And he went on to serve as Texas solicitor general from 2010 to 2015. He was a volunteer attorney on former President Donald Trump’s transition team and was unsuccessfully nominated by Trump to lead an agency tasked with making the government work better.

A law review article Mitchell wrote that was published in 2018 gave guidance to lawmakers worried about courts blocking their laws. He said lawmakers could protect their legislation by including a private right of action. He said the strategy could apply to a wide range of laws such as campaign finance, gun control and abortion.

[Klaralven]

1. Former Assistant Prof. at the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University

Jonathan F. Mitchell is Principal at Mitchell Law PLLC. He received his law degree with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an articles editor of The University of Chicago Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.

After graduating from law school, Mr. Mitchell clerked for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States. He then served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice from 2003 through 2006. After leaving the Department of Justice, Mr. Mitchell was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Law School from 2006 through 2008, and then an Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason University from 2008 through 2010.

https://fedsoc.org/contributors/jonathan-mitchell

Bio at the Federalist Society.

[Lovie777]

2. History repeats itself . ...

unfortunately, many lives both women and babies will suffer and many will die.

But alas, I've learned republicans just don't care, and want to control women and their bodies.

[Paladin]

3. Not surprised that fucking Scalia's influence continues destroying things. (nt)