Newsom Calls for Gun Legislation Modeled on the Texas Abortion Law – The New York Times

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Supporters of abortion rights have criticized Texas for drafting its abortion ban to evade review in federal court, where it might be blocked. It effectively deputizes ordinary citizens, including those outside Texas, to sue clinics and others who violate the ban, awarding them at least $10,000 per illegal abortion if they are successful.

In a 5-4 decision led by the conservative majority, the Supreme Court ruled that abortion clinics could sue the state’s licensing officials to halt the new law, but could not sue state court judges, court clerks or the state attorney general. Otherwise, the court allowed the law, in effect since September, to stand.

As the Supreme Court has signaled that it might overturn Roe v. Wade, California political leaders have said they will work to make the state a refuge for women in parts of the country where abortion could be outlawed. Mr. Newsom’s response seemed to fulfill warnings that if the high court backed Texas’ legal strategy, liberal-leaning states might use the same tactic to limit rights dear to conservatives, such as gun rights.

The governor said that “if states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way.”

The reference was a swipe at a court ruling this year in which a federal judge overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, comparing the powerful guns, frequently used in mass shootings, to military pocketknives.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/12/us/politics/newsom-texas-abortion-law-guns.html

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