On Wednesday, a federal judge reportedly scheduled a hearing for Oct. 1 to consider temporarily blocking Texas’ new law, S.B. 8, which bans abortions after fetal heartbeat detection, following a request filed by Department of Justice (DOJ).
As reported by The Texas Tribune, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Pitman agreed to hear arguments rather than immediately acting on the request from the Biden administration. S.B. 8 has been a target of the administration since it took effect Sept. 1 after the Supreme Court voted 5-4 upholding the legislation.
As we reported, the DOJ filed a motion on Tuesday asking a federal judge to issue a “temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction enjoining the enforcement of S.B. 8.” This motion followed Attorney General Merrick Garland’s announcement that the DOJ would sue Texas over S.B. 8, and his previous statement that they were “urgently explor[ing] all options to challenge Texas SB8 in order to protect the constitutional rights of women and other persons, including access to an abortion[.]”
Before Garland’s announcement, President Biden issued a statement following S.B. 8 going into effect. In his statement, Biden said that he is looking to “launch a whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision, looking specifically to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice to see what steps the Federal Government can take to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions as protected by Roe[.]”
In addition to outlawing abortion around the six-week threshold, S.B. 8 allows citizens to pursue legal action against anyone who provides an illegal abortion or abets a woman seeking an illegal abortion. Individuals who successfully bring lawsuits under S.B. 8 can be rewarded $10,000.
“Texas chose to rely on private persons to enforce S.B. 8 through the Texas judicial system,” the motion reads. “Normally, a statute that so successfully stripped a state’s citizens of their constitutional rights would fall victim to a slew of pre-enforcement challenges. But Texas has sought to save S.B. 8 from that fate by washing its hands of responsibility for enforcing the law.”