Re:Lyft, Uber lash out at legal threat from strict Texas abo...
by beerandt on Saturday September 04, 2021 @06:15PM
(#28419857)
A non-profit sued it's way to SCOTUS a few years ago in defense of frogs.
Absurd arguments both for and against standing are hardly new, and most don't have statutory authority behind them.
Re:Lyft, Uber lash out at legal threat from strict Texas abo...
by dragonwriter on Saturday September 04, 2021 @07:03PM
(#28420179)
> Absurd arguments both for and against standing are hardly new
Narrowly crafting laws to avoid pre-enforcement review specifically to maximize the impact knowing that they will almost certainly be struck down as unconstitutional is, on the other hand, unusual, if perhaps not completely new (something similar may have been done before, but I am not aware of any examples.)
Re:Lyft, Uber lash out at legal threat from strict Texas abo...
by beerandt on Saturday September 04, 2021 @07:12PM
(#28420230)
There's a federal law giving people the right to sue fax spammers- statutory damages of ~$500 per fax, specifically to get around freedom of speech. I think it was in the 1996 telecom law.
Not sure if it's been litigated.
Re:Lyft, Uber lash out at legal threat from strict Texas abo...
by justin66 on Saturday September 04, 2021 @07:05PM
(#28420187)
> A non-profit sued it's way to SCOTUS a few years ago in defense of frogs.
Is a non-profit defending frogs meant to be self-evidently absurd?
Re:Lyft, Uber lash out at legal threat from strict Texas abo...
by beerandt on Saturday September 04, 2021 @09:14PM
(#28420878)
For standing to sue? Yes
Why would a special interest group be able to sue to protect frogs, but another wouldn't be able to sue to protect unborn babies?
Re:Lyft, Uber lash out at legal threat from strict Texas abo...
by justin66 on Saturday September 04, 2021 @10:14PM
(#28421139)
They're going to have some issues bringing frogs in as a party to a lawsuit (those little green bastards can't even sign the appropriate paperwork... lack of opposable thumbs) but there's nothing legally noteworthy about a non-profit group obtaining standing to sue the government about an environmental or ecological issue that is covered under statute, or under the executive branch/EPA's enforcement jurisdiction.
It designed to maximize the legal threat surface for anyone connected to abortion while immunizing the law against the pre-enforcement review it would have been subject to had it been state-enforced.
It’s a study in how to design a law for maximum chilling effect when you know you have an ideologically supportive Supreme Court but one with enough respect for legal precedent that it is unlikely that they’d simply uphold a 6-week abortion ban.
(Viewed another way, its a study in how to conduct an overt, brazen conspiracy against rights and deprivation of rights under color of law and test whether the federal criminal laws against those mean anything.)