Followup here on birth control pill case in Texas.
He joins the canon of anti-abortion judges asking for privacy as they strip privacy from others. And he didn’t stop there.
University of Oklahoma law professor Joseph Thai was scathing in his assessment to the Associated Press. “The fact that the Trump-appointed judge is deciding a highly political question, potentially denying millions of women across the country a safe and effective abortion pill, makes it all the more critical to ensure public notice and access to the hearing at which their rights will—or will not—be heard,” Thai said. “Nothing less than the legitimacy of the judicial branch is at stake.”
I’m extremely worried about this, primarily because of the (even more) restricted access to abortion this will cause, but also because it means that any political/religious group can do an end-run around FDA approval for any medication or vaccination they want and prevent anyone in the whole country from getting it.
If they decide MRNA vaccines are against their religion, they can go before any federal right wing nut job judge of their choice and have a good chance of blocking its use in all 50 states.
Not saying the FDA is perfect, but maybe DOCTORS and SCIENTISTS should be deciding what medications are safe and effective and not religious groups and nut-job judges.
It’s also a case of judge shopping on the part of this religious group that went before this particular judge that they knew would rule their way. Something modeled by Trump time and again.
And then be banned for decades if not forever and set a precedent of bypassing the FDA every time some extremist decides they don’t want the country to have a particular medical treatment.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on Saturday that he would pardon a man who was convicted on Friday of murdering a protester in Austin, as long as a state board brought such a request to his desk.
The announcement from the governor directly places the fate of Daniel S. Perry, who was found guilty of killing Garrett Foster, 28, at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in 2020, in the hands of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
[…]
During the trial, prosecutors pointed to Mr. Perry’s social media posts as evidence, such as when he wrote that he might “kill a few people on my way to work; they are rioting outside my apartment complex,” The Austin American-Statesman reported.
Texas legislature bans any school assignments that require direct contact between students and elected officials. No meeting with city council members, no attending school board meetings. Civics class must remain in the classroom, no real life experiences.
Besides, the 4th graders might be packing pistols, and the one group that even (especially?) hard core Reactionary Right pols want disarmed are all citizens within range of themselves.
Looks like next year’s election drama will heavily feature Harris County. The Texas legislature is preparing to pull off what Wisconsin legislators wanted to do in Milwaukee and Dane counties before they lost their majority in the state Supreme Court.