Alabama’s Republican attorney general said in a court filing that he has the right to prosecute people who make travel arrangements for pregnant women to have out-of-state abortions.
Alabama’s Republican attorney general said in a court filing that he has the right to prosecute people who make travel arrangements for pregnant women to have out-of-state abortions.
In a court filing Monday, attorneys for Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote that providing transportation for women in Alabama to leave the state to get an abortion could amount to a “criminal conspiracy.”
The court filing comes in response to lawsuits against Marshall that was filed in July from two women’s health centers and Yellowhammer Fund, an organization which says it provides “financial and practical support for those who are pregnant and require assistance.” The plaintiffs argue that Marshall violated their constitutional rights by publicly stating that organizations which help pregnant women in Alabama get an abortion out of state could be criminally investigated.
“Alabama can no more regulate out-of-state abortions than another state can deem its laws legalizing abortions to apply to Alabama,” the Yellowhammer Fund lawsuit argues.
It would literally have to go to SCOTUS because it is simply not legal on the state level to charge people with crimes they didn't commit in that state. Marijuana is not legal in Indiana. You can't prosecute someone for buying and smoking it in Michigan or Illinois.
And I don't think even SCOTUS would mess with that. They're evil but they're not that crazy.
There is zero chance this is legal. It 100% violates the commerce clause.
If this were legal, he could prosecute Southwest for flying people to Vegas to gamble. He could prosecute United for flying people to Denver to smoke weed.
If this were legal, he could prosecute Southwest for flying people to Vegas to gamble. He could prosecute United for flying people to Denver to smoke weed.
DAWG. You can't champion states rights and then punish your constituents for availing themselves of another state's laws. Unless you're some kind of hypocrite...
If I were a Democrat and I saw that 6–3 Supreme Court, I would be very wary of attempting anything involving interstate commerce. The Supreme Court clearly has no regard for precedent or consistency anymore, the last thing I want to do is call attention to one of the most potent weapons I have for checking the powers of state governments and the executive branch.
That would be the quickest way to destroy every red state's infrastructure funding and blue states could easily retaliate saying that they don't recognize driver's licenses from red states and won't let in the so-called citizens without a passport.
Interesting that he's calling it a "criminal conspiracy". To this non-lawyer, it looks like an attempt to distract from Trump's high-profile case, and make it seem like anything is a criminal conspiracy now.
Standard GOP MO. As soon as the Dems accuse (credibly) a Republican of wrongdoing, the GOP floods the airwaves with talking-heads using the same language to dilute the meaning for the intellectually-challenged that make up their viewership. They did it for "coup", "insurrection", "quid pro quo", etc. It's all part of DARVO.
Between this and flat out ignoring the supreme court when they don't like the ruling, Alabama Republicans are really pushing for a constitutional crisis.
Whatever happened to these state rights that the GOP keep hounding on about? Almost like they've been making bad faith arguments all this time and just really want to criminalize it throughout the whole country...
Does that apply to only residents of Alabama? Or fetuses conceived in Alabama? Or pregnant women that stepped foot in Alabama? These laws make no sense.
Know what I would do if I were a billionaire? I'd fund cases fighting these clowns. Hundreds of challenges to these stupid asshats like the "Scopes Monkey Trial" (which was a test case, designed to kill a law, if you didn't know). But then again, no one who believes in actual altruism becomes a billionaire, so this is sort of fantasy.
I know a few trust funders who don't have the billions but since they don't need to make money they've taken up jobs that contribute to the world they want to see. Lawyers and counsellors who work on a sliding scale.
Alabama’s Republican attorney general said in a court filing that he has the right to prosecute people who make travel arrangements for pregnant women to have out-of-state abortions.
The court filing comes in response to lawsuits against Marshall that was filed in July from two women’s health centers and Yellowhammer Fund, an organization which says it provides “financial and practical support for those who are pregnant and require assistance.” The plaintiffs argue that Marshall violated their constitutional rights by publicly stating that organizations which help pregnant women in Alabama get an abortion out of state could be criminally investigated.
Marshall is now asking Judge Myron Thompson to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that helping a woman avoid Alabama’s restrictions by facilitating an abortion elsewhere is a conspiracy.
“The conspiracy is what is being punished, even if the final conduct never occurs,” Marshall’s filing states.
In the wake of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision last summer, several Republican-led states passed strict anti-abortion laws, while several others, including Alabama, that had passed so-called trigger laws anticipating an eventual overturn of Roe v. Wade saw their new restrictions go into effect.
Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who wrote on X Wednesday, “California will NOT cooperate with any state that attempts to prosecute women or doctors for receiving or providing reproductive care.”
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