Biden administration to ask the Supreme Court to block Texas abortion law

Austin News Briefs - Austin American Statesman

The Biden administration will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a Texas law banning most abortions, a Justice Department official said Friday, while an appeal to the law goes forward. It's the latest attempt by the federal government to block the law. The announcement came hours after a federal appeals court sided with Texas officials a second time and kept in place a previous order by that appeals court to suspend a lower court ruling that had blocked the law. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 late Thursday, refusing a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to let stand a lower court ruling by a federal judge in Austin blocking enforcement of the Texas law. But the Supreme Court, which previously allowed the law to go into effect by declining to intervene at the request of Texas abortion providers, may get a second look.