A majority of the Supreme Court signaled Monday they would allow abortion providers to pursue a court challenge to a Texas law that has virtually ended abortion in the nation’s second-largest state after six weeks of pregnancy.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 A majority of the Supreme Court signaled Monday they would allow abortion providers to pursue a court challenge to a Texas law that has virtually ended abortion in the nation\u2019s second-largest state after six weeks of pregnancy. But it was unclear how quickly the court would rule and whether it would issue an order blocking the law that has been in effect for two months, or require providers to ask a lower court put the law on hold. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, two conservative appointees of former President Donald Trump, voted in September to allow the law to take effect, but they raised questions Monday about its structure. The law, written to make it difficult to mount legal challenges, subjects clinics, doctors and any others who facilitate abortions to large financial penalties. \u201cMillions and millions retroactively imposed, even though the activity was perfectly lawful under all court orders and precedent at the time it was undertaken, right?\u201d Kavanaugh asked, in one of several skeptical questions he put to Judd E. Stone II, representing Texas. Barrett, too, pressed Stone about provisions of the law that force providers to fight lawsuits one by one and, she said, don\u2019t allow their constitutional rights to be \u201cfully aired.\u201d The justices heard three hours of arguments Monday in two cases over whether abortion providers or the Justice Department can mount federal court challenges to the law, which has an unusual enforcement scheme its defenders argue shields it from federal court review. The Biden administration filed its lawsuit after the justices voted 5-4 to refuse a request by providers to keep the law on hold. Justice Neil Gorsuch, also a Trump appointee, and two other conservative justices joined Barrett and Kavanaugh in the majority to let the law take effect. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court\u2019s three liberal justices in dissent. Arguing for the United States, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that Texas\u2019 law was enacted in \u201copen defiance\u201d of Supreme Court precedent. \u201cIt enacted a law that clearly violates this court\u2019s precedents,\u201d she said. Under the Supreme Court\u2019s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, states are prevented from banning abortion before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, around 24 weeks of pregnancy. The justices will hear a separate challenge to those decisions in a case over Mississippi\u2019s ban on abortion after 15 weeks. Those arguments are set for Dec.1. Most questions focused on the Texas law and how it has altered abortion in the state even before the high court has made any change in abortion law. Justice Elena Kagan said if the Supreme Court doesn\u2019t do anything about that, it would be inviting states to try to flout precedent: \u201cGuns. Same-sex marriage. Religious rights. Whatever you don\u2019t like: go ahead,\u201d she said. Kavanaugh also raised concerns about laws that might affect other constitutional rights.<\/p>\n