Attorney General Merrick Garland
has announced that the Department
of Justice plans on filing
a lawsuit against the state of
Texas over its anti abortion law.
He gave a press conference today to
announce the lawsuit and
the reasons for
why he believes that the anti
abortion law is unconstitutional.
Let's watch.
>> Today, after a careful
assessment of the facts in the law,
the Justice Department has filed a
lawsuit against the state of Texas.
Our position is set out in detail
in our complaint.
Its basis is as follows.
SB8 bans nearly all abortions in
the state after six weeks of
pregnancy, before many women even
know they are pregnant, and months
before a pregnancy is viable.
It does so even in cases of rape,
sexual abuse, or incest, and
it further prohibits any effort
to aid the doctors who provide
pre-viability abortions or
the women who seek them.
The act is clearly unconstitutional
under long standing Supreme Court
precedent.
Those precedents hold in the words
of Planned Parenthood versus Casey,
that quote, regardless of whether
exceptions are made for
particular circumstances,
a state may not prohibit any woman
from making the ultimate decision
to terminate her pregnancy before
viability.
>> So the argument made there is
very similar to the arguments
that's already being made in
the lawsuits that have already been
filed against the anti
abortion law.
And so I really question how much
of an impact this lawsuit will
have.
There are some legal scholars who
have weighed in and
I'll give you their point of view
in just a second.
But Cenk, before we get to that,
and the second half of
Merrick Garland statement,
what do you think?
>> So first,
my expert legal analysis,
which I share with you guys often.
I don't know if you guys know this,
I'm a bit of a lawyer in this case.
>> But it's true.
I mean- >> But it is true.
>> Yeah.
>> So in this case,
I have no freaking idea.
>> Yeah.
>> I don't know if this is going to
help at all.
I do know that the Texas law is
unconstitutional.
That seems clear.
We talked on earlier shows about
why the Supreme Court didn't
take it and
it's not completely open and shut.
The reason the law was
designed the way that it was,
was to avoid judicial scrutiny and
or at least gave conservative
justices enough of an excuse
to avoid judicial scrutiny.
So it could actually take effect
before it gets adjudicated.
Now when the Justice Department
jumps in and sues them, that could
be a moment where the judges then
go or ultimately the Supreme Court
justices go okay, yeah, now we have
a real issue in front of the court.
So it ends Texas's loophole.
Or they could say, no,
the loophole still applies.
This is not about state power.
It's one set of citizens suing
another set of citizens and
once they do to collect $10,000,
then we'll have a real case and
then we'll judge it.
And so it's very hard to tell
right now which way the courts
are going to go and
it's going to have to weave its
way through the courts.
So maybe it helps policy wise,
substance wise, can't tell you.
Politics wise it definitely helps
because it looks like
the Biden administration is going
out there going we're doing
everything we can dammit.
>> Right so,
they write in the Washington Post
that the suit asks a judge to
declare the measure unlawful,
block its enforcement, and protect
the rights that Texas has violated.
Legal scholars and
advocates have suggested that
a lawsuit alleging women's civil
rights are being violated under
the new law is one avenue the Biden
administration could take.
So let's get to the second half of
Attorney General Garlon statement
on what the DOJ plans on doing.
>> Federal law by prohibiting
federal agencies from exercising
their authorities and
carrying out their responsibilities
under federal laws relating to
abortion services.
It also subjects federal employees
and non governmental partners
who implement those laws to
civil liability and penalties.
Among the federal agencies and
programs whose operations
the statute unconstitutionally
restricts are the Labor
Department's Job Corps program,
the Defense Department's TRICARE
health program, The Office of
Refugee Resettlement, the Bureau of
Prisons, the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services, and
the Office of Personnel Management.
The complaint therefore seeks
a declaratory judgment that SB8 is
invalid under the supremacy clause.
And the 14th Amendment
is preempted by federal law and
violates the doctrine of
intergovernmental immunity.
>> So look, I hope no one's
distracted by the fact that he has
the charisma of a celery stick.
It's good that the DOJ is planning
on doing something about this.
I'm pleased with that.
But look, at the end of the day,
the most important thing to be
done is for
Congress to pass legislation,
something that honestly should have
been done long ago.
>> Certainly when Obama had started
his first term and had a super
majority in Congress, I mean, just
make sure you codify reproductive
rights through legislation.
Unfortunately, Congress did
not do that.
And now you have Nancy Pelosi in
the House drafting up legislation
to ensure that reproductive rights
are protected under federal law.
That is going to go nowhere in
the Senate unless the Biden
administration pressures corporate
Democrats in the Senate to do away
with the filibuster, which would
require 60 votes in the Senate to
pass that legislation.
So the fact that we don't have
a real avenue through which
Congress can protect reproductive
rights, I guess it's nice to see
the executive branch under the DOJ
doing something about this.
But again, I mean,
I wish I could give you a clear
prediction on what I think is
going to happen with this lawsuit.
I really don't know.
>> Yeah, so, Jessica Cisneros had
a great quote here that I want to
share with you guys.
She's just Democrat.
She's running against Henry Quer,
who's one of the most conservative
Democrats and
against choice in Texas.
So very relevant race down there.
She almost beat him last time and
she'll likely beat him this time.
So she wrote asking us to quote out
organize the attacks on voting
rights and reproductive health care
is so disheartening because we did
out organize those attacks last
November.
>> Yes.
>> She said Congress needs to act.
It's now or never,
the stakes have never been higher.
So that's such a great point
because what are you asking us
to do for?
Our job was to get you elected.
She's saying as the voters and
activists and people who care about
a democratic party's
priorities legislation, etc, right?
Now, it's your job after we acted
for you to act, don't then turn it
back around on us and go.
We have all the power to act, but
golly, gee, I don't know what
the hell we're going to do.
I guess we're going to do nothing.
Why don't you guys magically figure
out what to do?
No, that's not how it works.
It's not our system works.
So don't let them lie to you.
Here give Biden credit for
doing something that might help.
Good enough,
at least it's something, right?
But the real actions in Congress
and they can easily end
the filibuster, make Roe v Wade,
a national law tomorrow,
they could do it tomorrow.
They're choosing not to do it.
That's the Democratic Party.
So I love that there
are progressives that within that
ten going now we're going to call
you out on your BS because you're
choosing not to really fight back.
There's a lot of noise around.
Man, we're so
upset at the Texas law.
>> Right. >> Well, the way you show
that is through legislation.
>> No, that's exactly right.
I mean, just my final point on this
is the other day as this situation
in Texas is happening.
We keep hearing about the pushback
on the budget reconciliation bill,
which we'll talk about later
in the show, I forgot for a minute
that Democrats hold control like
that they have the power.
You forget.
It feels sometimes like we're still
living in the Trump era.
Although, there's a little more
decorum in government without
Trump sitting in the White House.
But nonetheless,
that feeling of powerlessness is
ridiculous considering the fact
that Democrats campaigned on Trump
being this huge threat and
how important it was to get them
elected to prevent that threat from
gaining additional power.
And to ensure that they pass their
agenda items, what's going on with
their agenda items?
>> Well, almost no action.
I mean, so in terms of Congress,
they passed the COVID relief bill,
very little else.
>> Yeah. >> So, here we are now,
it's almost been a year.
FDR 2.0 hasn't
been spotted anywhere near DC.
You remember when he used to talk
about that nonsense?
Yeah, well, it's just put up or
shut up time.