What Texas Can do About SCOTUS and Abortion

What Texas Can do About SCOTUS and Abortion

By

James Scott Trimm

Breaking News:  This morning SCOTUS overturned large portions of Texas' anti-abortion omnibus law (HB 2).  Texas Right to Life reports this morning:

The Supreme Court of the United States has denied Texas the right to protect women by enforcing crucial health and safety standards on the abortion industry.

The majority 5-3 ruling strikes down two provisions of House Bill 2, the Pro-Life Omnibus Bill of the 2013 Legislative Session, which require abortion mills to operate as Ambulatory Surgical Centers and which require abortionists to possess hospital admitting privileges within a 30-mile radius of the abortion mill before committing abortions.

The provision in the law which protects preborn children -- who science shows feel pain at 20 weeks -- was not challenged and continues to save lives in Texas.

This ruling comes, despite the fact that no branch of the federal government has delegated power under the US Constitution, over the regulation of safety of medical procedures or facilities, or over the licensing of medical personal or facilities.  Therefore, under the tenth amendment these powers are retained by the states.

The supposed "right to an abortion" is not found in the US Constitution and is an invention of SCOTUS.  The right to life, however, is guaranteed by the ninth amendment which must certainly encompass the the inalienable rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" referenced in the Declaration of Independence.  And the 14th amendment which states that no state can "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

It is time for Texas for Texas to demand our Tenth Amendment rights!

The new Texas State Republican Platform for 2016 boldly proclaims concerning abortion:

"Abolish Abortion- We call upon the Texas Legislature to enact legislation stopping the murder of unborn children; and to ignore and refuse to enforce any and all federal statutes, regulations, executive orders, and court rulings, which would deprive an unborn child of the right to life."

But how can the Texas Legislature enact legislation abolishing abortion in Texas?  What about Roe v. Wade?  Hasn’t the US Supreme Court ruled that there is a Constitutional right to an abortion?  What about today's ruling?

Well as the platform says, there is a way for Texas to “to ignore and refuse to enforce any and all federal statutes, regulations, executive orders, and court rulings, which would deprive an unborn child of the right to life.”  That way involves reclaiming our Texas Sovereignty, as the Platform elsewhere states:

State Sovereignty- Pursuant to Article 1 Section 1 of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our right of local self-government.  Therefore, federally mandated legislation, which infringes upon the 10th Amendment rights of Texas, should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified. Regulation of Commerce in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution has exceeded the original intent. All attempts by the federal judiciary to rule in areas not expressly enumerated by the Untied States Constitution should be likewise nullified. Any federal enforcement activities that do occur in Texas should be conducted under the authority of the county sheriff.

But how can we actually accomplish this?  How can the State of Texas nullify a federal court ruling from the US Supreme Court?  The answer is the Texas Sovereignty Act!

The Supreme Court has become the final interpreter of the Constitution for one simple reason: because they say they are.  The Supreme Court usurped this authority, claiming it for itself in 1803 in Marbury v. Madison.  Nowhere does the Constitution assign this role to the Supreme Court, they simply have it because they say they do.

The framers stated that the US Constitution is a compact between the member states, and that as such, each state has equal standing in determining for itself the meaning of the Constitution.  The tenth amendment states that the states and the people retain all powers not delegated to the federal government in the Constitution, and nowhere in the Constitution did the states delegate to any branch of the federal government the power to be the ultimate and final interpreter of the Constitution.  The Supremacy Clause never mentions the Supreme court, but appears to indicate that state judges would make these judgments.(You can read more about the basis for the Texas Sovereignty Act by clicking here)

Surely any law our state passes that reclaims its sovereignty will be declared unconstitutional by the federal government, since they have developed their own precedence on the issue.  This has been called the Goliad approach to sovereignty.  You surrender to the authority you were fighting, ask for mercy and are slaughtered in return.

We must simply pass the Texas Sovereignty Act, that, as a matter of enforceable and implemented law, Texas determines for itself whether or not our laws are Constitutional.

This means the federal courts will also have no power to find the Texas Sovereignty Act itself unconstitutional, because the law itself takes that decision out of their hands and places it in those of our state.

This is the only true path to Texas sovereignty.  Any effort that leaves the matter ultimately in the hands of federal courts will fail, because they will simply declare it unconstitutional (though their own usurped power to do so is itself unconstitutional).

Yes we can nullify Roe v. Wade in Texas!  We must urge Texas Legislature to pass this binding legislation claiming and enacting the right of our state to judge for itself whether a state law is unconstitutional, or whether a federal law, policy, action or ruling is unauthorized or undelegated by the U.S. Constitution.

This is how we can finally end abortion in Texas!  Remember Goliad!