Texas GOP [threatened] law firm that planned to reimburse abortion travel | Hacker News Reader

Texas GOP [threatened] law firm that planned to reimburse abortion travel

businessinsider.com

Letter: https://freedomfortexas.com/uploads/blog/3b118c262155759454e...

Letter title: "litigation hold letter — sidley austin llp"

Quotes: "We will also be introducing legislation next session that will impose additional civil and criminal sanctions on law firms that pay for abortions or abortion travel. The legislation that we will introduce will include each of the following provisions.

Litigation is already underway to uncover the identity of those who aided or betted these and other illegal abortions. In light of this pending litigation, as well as any anticipated litigation that might ensue, you and your colleagues at Sidley must preserve and retain all documents, data, and electronically stored information relating in any way to: (1) Any abortions performed or induced in Texas on or after September 1, 2021, in which a fetal heartbeat was detectable (or likely to be detectable if tested), including any such abortions that occurred while Judge Pitman’s injunction was in effect from October 6–8, 2021; (2) Any abortions performed or induced in Texas on or after June 24, 2022, including abortions performed while Judge Weems’s TRO was in effect from June 28, 2022, through July 1, 2022; (3) Any abortion that occurred on or after September 1, 2021, if there is any possibility that the patient might have opted for a drug-induced abortion and ingested either of the abortion drugs in Texas, even if the drugs were dispensed by a provider outside the state of Texas; and (4) The identity of any person or entity who has aided or abetted the abortions described in (1) – (3), including anyone at your firm, and anyone who paid for or in any way reimbursed the costs of those abortions.

You and your colleagues must preserve these items regardless of the medium, format, or device on which they are stored or hosted, and regardless of whether they appear in documents, drafts, notes, calendar entries, emails, text messages, voicemails, social-media posts, or any other form. Failure to preserve these documents could subject you and your colleagues to significant penalties.

Conduct yourselves accordingly."

In the United States, can you pass a law that makes something retroactively criminal? I'm not sure I understand why the Freedom Caucus is warning people about conduct pursuant to legislation which has yet to be introduced.

Somebody forgot the Federal Constitution explicitly prohibits ex post facto lawmaking/prosecution.

Also: Called it! As soon as it became a State issue, the States that want to regulate it are going to do so through paper trail created by employers/insurers/benefits providers, because that's just how the regulatory edifice works.

I truly hate that I actually grok how all this crap is going to play out before it does. It's bloody tiring.

Isn't it also unconstitutional for states to regulate resident's (and anyone's) activities out of the state?

Probably but the current supreme court will rule whichever way their overlords want them to

It's never that simple (see state tax law). Also, laws regarding out-of-state abortion won't be about the actual out-of-state procedure but rather the travel/facilitation to get out of state to begin with.

Just don’t go into these states when you don’t live there. Don’t remain if you are not fond of sharia law. Don’t remain if the uncertainty surrounding this law puts your profession at risk (such as ob-gyn vs liability). Let them stew in the own juices. The tax rates and the lack of winter aren’t worth the ethics hit. Unless, of course, you’re in it for the money.

Those that remain, well, choices have consequences.

This was the exact intent of SCOTUS' ruling.

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