In my September 5th essay I described a novel approach to seek the striking down of Texas’s SB-8 anti-abortion bill. That law relied on a “vigilante enforcement mechanism” that allowed private individuals to file suit against those they suspected of having had an abortion. The conclusion of the essay was that the law must be struck down because of a provision in the bill that denied defendant’s the right to seek redress for malicious lawsuits through the Texas Code of Civil Procedure. That language, along with section g which states: “This section may not be construed to impose liability on any speech or conduct protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, as made applicable to the states through the United States Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, or by Section 8,” which, given it’s context in this piece of legislation, appears to be an attempt to facilitate the harassment of women in the Democratic party by allowing privately financed right-wing extremists to file numerous suits against numerous women, regardless of whether or not they’ve had an abortion, and then claim that the filing of those suits was an act of protected political speech.
Click here to read the rest of this essay at the Otter Globe and Intelligencer.