Biden condemns Supreme Court ruling on Texas abortion law as ‘unprecedented assault’ on women’s rights

Chief Justice John Roberts, who joined liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer in dissent, wrote that the Texas law is “not only unusual, but unprecedented.”

He noted that the intent of giving citizens the power to sue abortionists “appears to be to insulate the State from responsibility for implementing and enforcing the regulatory regime.”

Other states have attempted to enact “heartbeat” bills banning abortion, but judges have struck down those efforts for violating the protections established by Roe.

Sotomayor, whose fiery dissent called the majority order “stunning,” accused the Texas legislature of attempting to “circumvent” constitutional obstacles by effectively deputizing its citizens as “bounty hunters.”

“Today, the Court finally tells the Nation that it declined to act because, in short, the State’s gambit worked,” she wrote. “This is untenable. It cannot be the case that a State can evade federal judicial scrutiny by outsourcing the enforcement of unconstitutional laws to its citizenry.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed S.B. 8 into law in May, told CNBC on Thursday that he believes the abortion law and other politically divisive social-issue legislation will not make his state less appealing to businesses or individuals.

“You need to understand that there’s a lot of businesses and a lot of Americans who like the social positions that the state of Texas is taking,” he said on “Squawk on the Street.”

“This is not slowing down businesses coming to the state of Texas at all. In fact it is accelerating the process of businesses coming to Texas,” Abbott said.

He added that Tesla CEO Elon Musk “had to get out of California because in part of the social policies in California and Elon consistently tells me that he likes the social policies in the state of Texas.”

Musk did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on Abbott’s remarks.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/02/biden-condemns-supreme-court-ruling-on-texas-abortion-law.html