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Opinion: What the Justice Department should do to stop the Texas abortion law
Using the KKK Act would be fun to watch
Link to tweet
Attorney General Merrick Garland has the power, under federal civil rights laws, to go after any vigilantes who employ the Texas law to seek bounties from abortion providers or others who help women obtain abortions.
The attorney general should announce, as swiftly as possible, that he will use federal law to the extent possible to deter and prevent bounty hunters from employing the Texas law. If Texas wants to empower private vigilantes to intimidate abortion providers from serving women, why not make bounty hunters think twice before engaging in that intimidation?
For example, Section 242 of the federal criminal code makes it a crime for those who, under color of law, willfully deprive individuals of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.
This statute originally designed to go after the Ku Klux Klan fits the Texas situation perfectly: The bounty seekers, entitled under the Texas law to collect penalties of at least $10,000, have been made, in effect, private attorneys general of Texas. They act under color of state law, and unless and until Roe v. Wade is overruled, they unmistakably intend to prevent the exercise of a constitutional right.
In addition, Section 241 of the federal criminal code makes it an even more serious crime for two or more persons to agree to oppress, threaten, or intimidate anyone in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same. This crime may be committed even by individuals not found to be acting under color of law but as purely private vigilantes, as long as theyre acting in concert with others
.The attorney general should announce, as swiftly as possible, that he will use federal law to the extent possible to deter and prevent bounty hunters from employing the Texas law. If Texas wants to empower private vigilantes to intimidate abortion providers from serving women, why not make bounty hunters think twice before engaging in that intimidation?
For example, Section 242 of the federal criminal code makes it a crime for those who, under color of law, willfully deprive individuals of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.
This statute originally designed to go after the Ku Klux Klan fits the Texas situation perfectly: The bounty seekers, entitled under the Texas law to collect penalties of at least $10,000, have been made, in effect, private attorneys general of Texas. They act under color of state law, and unless and until Roe v. Wade is overruled, they unmistakably intend to prevent the exercise of a constitutional right.
In addition, Section 241 of the federal criminal code makes it an even more serious crime for two or more persons to agree to oppress, threaten, or intimidate anyone in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same. This crime may be committed even by individuals not found to be acting under color of law but as purely private vigilantes, as long as theyre acting in concert with others
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Opinion: What the Justice Department should do to stop the Texas abortion law (Original Post)
LetMyPeopleVote
Sep 2021
OP
PortTack
(32,699 posts)1. I have seen several clips on twitter, they are already organizing. This must be stopped!
It will rip the country apart! Women will be under constant threat..never safe. If we think tfg stoked fear and anger, let this go forward, and what we are experiencing now will seem tame!
Cicada
(4,533 posts)2. Open clinics on federal land
Like Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio or Ft Bliss in El Paso. Lease facilities to abortion clinics.
PortTack
(32,699 posts)4. That's an excellent work around
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)3. K&R!