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One new rule buried in baseball’s new agreement: The All-Star Game will now be decided by a home run derby if it is tied after nine innings, The Associated Press reports. This time it ... still doesn’t count.
The Texas Supreme Court handed a new defeat to abortion providers in the battle over the state’s controversial abortion law.
For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan (psullivan@thehill.com), Nathaniel Weixel (nweixel@thehill.com), and Joseph Choi (jchoi@thehill.com). Write to us with tips and feedback, and follow us on Twitter: @PeterSullivan4 @NateWeixel and @JosefChoi.
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Court rebuffs abortion providers’ challenge
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that state licensing officials lack authority to enforce the state’s six-week abortion ban, handing a major defeat to abortion providers in their legal challenge to the restrictive law.
The unanimous 23-page ruling eliminated the final legal avenue providers had pursued in their bid to obtain a federal court order blocking state officials from enforcing Texas’s S.B. 8, the nation’s strictest abortion measure.
The ruling effectively determined that the last remaining group of state officials who were named as defendants are beyond the reach of federal courts in the case. Essentially, since state officials don’t enforce the law, there’s nobody left to sue.
“With this ruling, the sliver of this case that we were left with is gone,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, one of the challengers in the case. “An unconstitutional ban on abortion after six weeks continues unchecked in the state of Texas. The courts have allowed Texas to nullify a constitutional right.”
In December, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision carved a narrow path for a federal court challenge to proceed against S.B. 8, ruling that abortion providers could sue only one group of state defendants in federal court: Texas licensing officials.
But if the justices’ December ruling left the doors to the federal courthouse cracked open, the Friday ruling by the Texas Supreme Court slammed them shut.
“It ends the abortion providers lawsuit against S.B. 8 and underscores that the Supreme Court allowed states to write and enforce laws that nullify constitutional rights — without having to defend those laws in court,” said Leah Litman, a law professor at the University of Michigan.