WASHINGTON (CN) — In an apparent 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court late Thursday denied Texas abortion providers' request to speed up their litigation against a law banning almost all abortions in the state by sending it back to a district judge who once blocked enforcement of the law.
Abortion providers asked the justices to force the Fifth Circuit to send the case back to the district court at the beginning of the month after the appeals court seemed to be slow-walking their challenge to the Texas Heartbeat Act, also known as Senate Bill 8, which prohibits abortions before most women know they are pregnant. The law directly conflicts with the Supreme Court’s precedents in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey but is enforced by private citizens instead of government officials, creating legal hurdles to challenging the ban.
The majority offered no opinion on the order. Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor both wrote dissents, both of which Justice Elena Kagan joined.
While Sotomayor said she had some hope that the district court would be able to offer relief following the high court’s decision to allow the challenge to move forward on a narrow ground, she was wrong.
“Today’s decision shows that any hope that Whole Woman’s Health II might protect the Constitution’s guarantees in this case was illusory,” the Barack Obama appointee wrote.
Sotomayor did not mince words in her view of the majority’s decision and the Texas law.
“This case is a disaster for the rule of law and a grave disservice to women in Texas, who have a right to control their own bodies,” she wrote. “I will not stand by silently as a State continues to nullify this constitutional guarantee.”
Since S.B. 8 was enacted in September, the abortion providers have tried to block its enforcement to no avail. The narrow ruling from the justices in December allowed the law to stay in place while proceeding against only one of the defendants abortion providers wished to pursue. Those with authority over medical licenses could be sued but not judges and clerks of the state court system.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the abortion providers asked the justices to fast-track the case by sending it back to the district court on an expedited basis instead of waiting 25 days. The justices agreed to speed up the case on that occasion but sent it to the Fifth Circuit instead.
The Fifth Circuit decided to set oral arguments over whether the New Orleans-based appeals court should send the case to the state high court, which led to the ruling to further delay the litigation.
The abortion providers’ challenge now sits with the Texas Supreme Court — of which every member is Republican — where earlier this week it was asked to decide the same issue already decided by the Supreme Court: whether abortion providers named the right defendants in their challenge to the law.





