The Justice Department said the law was intended to “violate the Constitution,” and asked for it to be suspended while the courts determine if it is legal.
A federal judge heard arguments on Friday from the state of Texas and the federal government on whether a Texas law that bans nearly all abortions in the state should be suspended while the courts decide if it is legal. At issue is a restrictive abortion law that Texas enacted in September that uses a unique legal approach — deputizing private citizens to enforce it, instead of the state. The law, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act and Senate Bill 8, has had a chilling effect, with most of the state’s roughly two dozen abortion clinics no longer offering abortion services in cases in which cardiac activity is detected, which usually begins at around six weeks of pregnancy. The Justice Department sued Texas last month over the law. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland called the enforcement mechanism “an unprecedented” effort to prevent women from exercising their constitutionally protected right to have an abortion. He said that no matter their stand on abortion, Americans should fear that the Texas law could become a model to restrict other constitutionally protected rights. At the hearing on Friday, before Judge Robert L. Pitman, a Federal District Court judge in Austin, William T. Thompson, a lawyer for the state of Texas, asserted that the federal government had no grounds to be arguing the case, because the law did not harm it. “If the Texas Heartbeat Act actually, you know, created a liability for the federal government, there would be at least a potential injury there that would be worth litigating,” Mr.
