Texas' Abortion Law Has Been Appealed To The State Supreme Court, Extending The State's Stringent Restrictions

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has thrown in the towel. 

Texas' abortion law has been appealed to the state Supreme Court, extending the state's stringent restrictions.

On Monday, a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed with Texas, sending a challenge to the state's privately enforced stringent abortion legislation to the Texas Supreme Court, where it is expected to languish as long as the law remains in existence. On Twitter, University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck commented, "This judgment now maintains the case in limbo — and abortion after 6 weeks in the nation's second-largest state — a dead-letter, indefinitely."

The abortion clinics in Texas who are contesting the law had asked for their case to be referred to a federal district judge in Austin who had previously halted the bill before the conservative 5th Circuit appellate court reversed it.

Judge Stephen A. Higginson, a Democrat, disagreed with his two Republican colleagues, claiming that the subject had already been settled by the US Supreme Court. In his dissent, he observed, "This extra, second-guessing redundancy, without time restriction, deepens my worry that justice delayed is justice denied, thus obstructing relief granted by the Supreme Court."

Judge Edith H. Jones, who wrote the majority decision for the panel, said the Supreme Court gave the appellate court plenty of leeway in interpreting how to carry out its decision, and suggested in oral arguments earlier this month that the case should be put on hold until the Supreme Court rules this summer on a Mississippi case that could overturn or weaken Roe v. Wade's recognized constitutional right to abortion.