The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“TEXAS ABORTION BAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the in the Senate section section on page S6995 on Oct. 7.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TEXAS ABORTION BAN
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, last night, a Federal judge in Texas did what the U.S. Supreme Court should have done. He issued an injunction blocking Texas' clearly unconstitutional bounty hunter abortion ban from being enforced while challenges to the law make their way through the courts. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman came in response to a challenge of the Texas ban brought by the Federal Department of Justice.
The Texas abortion law, known as S.B. 8, is the most restrictive abortion law in the Nation and the most serious challenge to Roe v. Wade in 50 years. It was deliberately crafted to outlaw most abortions while allowing State lawmakers to evade judicial review. It deputizes private citizens to enforce the ban by suing anyone who ``aids and abets'' a woman seeking an abortion. And it offers rewards of $10,000 or more to plaintiffs who bring suits.
In his ruling, Judge Pitman wrote that Texas politicians had
``contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme'' that has ``unlawfully prevented [women in Texas] from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution.''
The Supreme Court order allowing the Texas law to take effect was a product of the Court's ``shadow docket'' of cases that are decided without full briefing or oral arguments--and without transparency or accountability.
The 5-4 order, from the Court's conservative majority, was criticized by some of the Court's own members, including Chief Justice John Roberts, who warned that Texas lawmakers had created a ``model for action,'' that other States could copy to undermine constitutionally protected rights.
The Chief Justice was right. Since the Court's ruling on S.B. 8, elected officials and political candidates in a number of States have vowed to introduce similar abortion bans.
With Judge Pitman's wise ruling last night, that rush to use citizen bounty hunters to avoid legal accountability while denying the constitutional rights of women and perhaps others is on hold--at least for now. But the threat to constitutional rights remains. Texas has already filed a notice of appeal in the conservative Fifth Circuit.
Abortion providers remain at risk of facing bounty hunter lawsuits if they perform abortions prohibited by the ban while the injunction is in place. Anti-choice organizations have vowed to be ``vigilant'' in suing individuals retroactively if the order is reversed.
I hope that justice--and the Constitution--will prevail in the coming days as this litigation continues. The fundamental rights of millions of Texans are at stake.
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