By: Garrett Brnger
The anti-abortion group, Texas Alliance for Life, has asked the Supreme Court of Texas to force the city to split the ballot initiative into several measures instead of just one.
By: Iris Dimmick
Meanwhile, the proposed charter amendment is facing a legal challenge at the Texas Supreme Court from the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life Inc.
The group has requested that the city reject the proposed ballot language and instead require a vote on each provision individually. The petition is pending, but the court issued an order Thursday morning that requires both parties to provide a status report to the court next week outlining the ballot language.
Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office urged the court to side with opponents. Solicitor General Judd Stone wrote Wednesday in a letter to the court that the Justice Charter “flagrantly violates” a state law prohibiting multi-subject charter amendments.
Stone urged the court to grant a petition filed by the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life Inc. (TAL) requesting that the city reject the proposed ballot language, and instead require a vote on each provision individually.
“While the substance of this proposed charter amendment conflicts with multiple substantive provisions of state law, this mandamus proceeding concerns a procedural problem: the charter amendment plainly violates Texas law’s longstanding prohibition on municipal charter amendments that ‘contain more than one subject,’” Stone wrote.
By: Molly Smith
Austin-based Texas Alliance for Life, along with San Antonio resident Maria Theresa Ramirez Morris, filed an emergency writ of mandamus petition Thursday asking the court to compel the city clerk and council to break up the charter amendment into separate ballot measures.
The anti-abortion group bypassed the San Antonio-based Fourth Court of Appeals — which counts just one Republican among its seven justices — and went directly to the all Republican Supreme Court.
On ExpressNews.com: Abortion opponents call ‘anarchy’ as San Antonio City Council approves resolution in favor of access
By: Andrea Drusch
On Friday the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life Inc. (TAL) filed a petition requesting that the city reject the proposed ballot language, which it says violates a state law prohibiting multi-subject charter amendments, and require each issue to be listed and voted on separately.
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“Respondents have no discretion to force voters to approve or reject, all or nothing, charter provisions dealing with issues as varied as theft, graffiti, or prohibiting cooperation with state agencies regulating abortion providers,” wrote attorney Eric Opiela, a former executive director of the Republican Party of Texas.
City Council is expected to order that the ballot proposition appear on the May 6 ballot Thursday, a formality they don’t get to exercise judgment over. The deadline for setting the May ballot is Friday.
By: STEPHEN ELLIOTT
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Texas state Senate, has signaled he might be willing to take up the exceptions question. “I am not saying no, but we’d have to see a real groundswell of Republicans in the House and Senate to say yes,” Patrick told Spectrum News’ Capital Tonight in a December interview.
Amy O’Donnell, communications director for Texas Alliance for Life, says her organization is “definitely against a rape-incest exception in our abortion laws,” though the group supports exceptions for medical emergencies. O’Donnell adds, however, that her organization has not withdrawn support from anti-abortion rights lawmakers who support rape and incest exceptions.
In Wisconsin, some GOP leaders also are interested in adding exceptions to the state’s strict abortion ban, a law dating to 1849 that was reactivated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe. But the situation in Wisconsin is complicated, because while Republicans control the legislature, Gov. Tony Evers is a Democrat.