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.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    No. No he doesn’t. He simply doesn’t have that right. It’s not even disputable.

    Sorry, you’ll have to bring back the Fugitive Slave Act first.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

          • Ertebolle@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Barrett is like the 4th most conservative justice; Alito’s the other crazy one. (I know it’s tempting to Handmaid’s Tale her, and her views on abortion are indeed abominable, but in most other cases she’s the sensible former Notre Dame law professor and tends to occupy the middle third with Kavanaugh and Roberts)

        • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
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          This is why the crime is facilitation, because facilitation takes place in state. It’s designed purposefully and fully hypocritically to ignore the rights of other states to set their own law.

  • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Interstate commerce is regulated by federal government; they could block this easily but Republicans are filibustering any attempt.

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      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.

      • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • hoodatninja@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          We have a Supreme Court justice Who openly said he wants to nullify every gay marriage license in the country. The upheaval that would cause is hard to measure. I don’t think you should underestimate their lack of concern for anyone outside of their immediate circle/politics.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
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      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.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    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.”


    The original article contains 318 words, the summary contains 216 words. Saved 32%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Hairyblue@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Republicans want to rule you. They don’t have popular ideas and the majority of American citizens don’t agree with them.

    Stop voting for Republicans, they don’t believe in our democracy.