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Texas abortion law a “radical expansion” of who can sue whom, and an about-face for Republicans on civil lawsuits

Rogue Valley

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Texas abortion law a “radical expansion” of who can sue whom, and an about-face for Republicans on civil lawsuits

Senate Bill 8, which allows anyone to sue anyone who performs or aids in an abortion, marks an unprecedented change to who has standing to bring a lawsuit.

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Republican lawmakers’ move to ban nearly all abortions in Texas was accomplished through a huge, unprecedented expansion of who can bring a lawsuit against someone else: Under the law, anyone can sue anyone who performs, aids or intends to aid in an abortion — regardless of whether they have a personal stake in the abortion performed. “It’s wide open,” said David Coale, an appellate lawyer in Texas. “That is a radical expansion of the concept of standing.” The expansion has far-reaching legal implications, legal experts say, by challenging the very notion of what a court is for and emboldening civilians to enforce law, a duty traditionally left to the government. It’s also a reversal by Texas Republicans on tort law, in which they have typically sought to limit the ability to sue, not expand it. Legal experts also told The Texas Tribune that the measure is part of an emerging trend in Republican-dominated governments that find it difficult to constitutionally prohibit cultural grievances. Instead, they empower civilians to sue for civil remedies. “It’s a way of back-dooring and winking while constitutional violations are occurring,” Michaels said. “It is compromising democracy.”

Texas’ abortion law goes much further. Typically, in tort law, which is used to compensate people who have been injured, a person must have incurred some sort of personal harm in order to sue someone else. That’s the very nature of what a civil court is intended to remedy in such a case, several legal experts told the Tribune. Texas’ new abortion law, however, gives that privilege to anyone. The measure was designed to avoid federal questions of violating the constitutional right to an abortion, which has been recognized by federal courts since Roe v. Wade nearly 50 years ago. The “open question” is whether standing is something that courts consider only to figure out who is allowed to sue under any given law or if, as Coale put it, standing is something that is so central to the nature of what a court is that it constrains the Legislature. Either way, he said, Texas is in “uncharted water.” “The concept of a private attorney general is very well known,” he said, “but the concept of this [type of] private attorney general is way out there. I cannot think of an analogue to it.”


The Texas abortion law gives "standing" to any Texan citizen with an abortion grievance. It is a rogue and vigilante type of justice that is un-American and probably unconstitutional.
 
their radical expansion of social, nanny-Statism is quite droll when you consider they allege to be for smaller government and lower taxes.

Individual Liberty, what is That, sayeth the right-wing when external to socialism threads where they do the most parroting about their purported belief and subscription to Capitalism.
 
Texas abortion law a “radical expansion” of who can sue whom, and an about-face for Republicans on civil lawsuits

Senate Bill 8, which allows anyone to sue anyone who performs or aids in an abortion, marks an unprecedented change to who has standing to bring a lawsuit.

The Texas abortion law gives "standing" to any Texan citizen with an abortion grievance. It is a rogue and vigilante type of justice that is un-American and probably unconstitutional.

You're quite right that the new law marks an abuse of lawsuits to give anyone with a grudge or an anti abortion point of view a license to harass anyone who has an abortion. This is especially worrisome since the abortion issue has been to the Supreme Court and has been found to be constitutional. Having been settled by SCOTUS, it's time to accept the decision and move on.

Of course the Second Amendment has been to the Supreme Court, and that doesn't seem to prevent Democratic legislatures from passing more and more unconstitutional gun control laws, giving anyone with a grudge or an anti-gun point of view a license to abuse red flag laws to harass anyone who owns a gun or the use of baseless harassment lawsuits against gun manufacturers. You'd think that having been settled by SCOTUS, they'd accept the decision and move on.

As I've said many times, the best thing that could happen to the country would be for both sides to accept Roe v Wade and DC v Heller and pay attention to other matters, but no.
 
This Texas law is the antithesis of tort law. It enables filing a lawsuit against someone who has not harmed you in order to collect a $10,000 state bounty.

How can someone who has not been harmed possess any legal standing to sue? As a general matter, courts do not allow frivolous lawsuits where the plaintiff has no standing.

The thing that is different here is that the State of Texas is granting "standing" legislatively. As I see it, that is beyond its purview.
 
Texas abortion law a “radical expansion” of who can sue whom, and an about-face for Republicans on civil lawsuits

Senate Bill 8, which allows anyone to sue anyone who performs or aids in an abortion, marks an unprecedented change to who has standing to bring a lawsuit.

The Texas abortion law gives "standing" to any Texan citizen with an abortion grievance. It is a rogue and vigilante type of justice that is un-American and probably unconstitutional.
Thanks for that. It says that anyone can have standing to sue for harm done. They can sue enablers and performers of abortion but what is the harm done?

If abortion isnt a criminal act...which it seems it's not, what's the harm? And if it is a criminal act, how can the state NOT enforce and charge it?



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