Breaking: The Texas Supreme Court ruled unanimously that state licensing officials do not have the legal authority to enforce SB8, known at the Texas Heartbeat Act, the oppressive anti-choice law that empowers ordinary residents to sue people associated with a woman getting an abortion.
The question before the Court was whether SB8 provides authority for the Texas Medical Board, the Texas Board of Nursing, the Texas Board of Pharmacy, or the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, “directly or indirectly, to take disciplinary or adverse action of any sort against individuals or entities that violate the Texas Heartbeat Act.” The plaintiffs in the case sought to negate any professional discipline by state-run licensing boards for civil cases stemming from the law.
Senate Bill 8 provides that its requirements may be enforced by a private civil action, that no state official may bring or participate as a party in any such action, that such an action is the exclusive means to enforce the requirements, and that these restrictions apply notwithstanding any other law. Based on these provisions, we conclude that Texas law does not grant the state-agency executives named as defendants in this case any authority to enforce the Act’s requirements, either directly or indirectly. We answer the Fifth Circuit’s certified question No.
The ruling does not nullify the entire Texas law, but it does eliminate the ability of the state agencies to put abortion providers and others out of business for allegedly violating the law, which is enforced only through civil lawsuits. It deals a blow to conservative efforts to used state law to drive abortion providers out of business, but it does nothing at this point to shield providers from innumerable nuisance lawsuits encouraged under the law.
The judgement, however, looks to close the door on federal intervention in the Texas abortion law, as the decision removes the ability for clinics to sue the state government over the law: the decision that takes enforcement power away from state agencies also shields those state agencies from any legal culpability for the law.