Abortion, FBI surveillance: Here's your briefing from the courts.

ACLU Supporter –

With so many events unfolding over the past week, you may have missed that the Supreme Court and the Texas Supreme Court issued rulings for ACLU cases that could have critical impact on our civil liberties – including one decision that was handed down just this morning.

Because of this, we wanted to make sure to share the key facts on what happened and what comes next. Here's your briefing on both decisions at issue:

Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson – concerning abortion access in Texas:

The decision: Today, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson – once the most promising lawsuit against Texas' ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy (S.B. 8) – cannot proceed against the Texas Medical Board and other similar state licensing officials, the only remaining defendants in that challenge. This ruling comes after the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed most of the case in December 2021, allowing only a small part of the case to move forward in lower court.

What does that mean? This ruling will result in dismissal of the remaining portion of the federal challenge to the 6-week ban – and S.B. 8 will likely remain in effect for the foreseeable future. This means the courts have once again failed Texans. Countless people have already been forced to carry pregnancies against their will during the six long months since S.B. 8 took effect – the brunt of which has fallen on people of color and people with the fewest resources. Make no mistake: What's happening right now is blatantly unconstitutional. And at a time when SCOTUS seems poised to gut or overturn Roe v. Wade soon – today's decision only motivates us to fight harder. The ACLU will continue doing everything we can to stem the suffering that has resulted from this attack on people's rights and we will not stop until everyone's ability to receive abortion care is safe and protected – in Texas and nationwide.

FBI v. Fazaga – concerning religious discrimination, unlawful surveillance, and state secrets:

The decision: In a challenge we brought against the FBI's discriminatory surveillance of three Muslim American men, SCOTUS issued a narrow ruling that the government may assert the "state secrets privilege" in cases alleging unlawful surveillance. This privilege essentially allows the government to block the release of certain information in lawsuits where it says disclosure would harm "national security." Though it is in no way the end of the road, the ruling makes it harder for those who have had their rights and privacy violated by discriminatory surveillance in the two decades since 9/11 to prove their claims in court.

What does that mean? While the Court's ruling does allow the government to assert this "states secrets privilege" in spying cases, the decision also took pains to leave open whether that privilege could allow courts to throw out cases altogether. That means we can continue the fight in the lower courts to protect our three clients' right to hold the FBI accountable for its discriminatory surveillance.

ACLU Supporter, what is most certain about these recent decisions is that they are not the end of either fight.

The ACLU will be moving as swiftly as possible in the days, weeks, and months ahead to defend abortion access and privacy rights nationwide through fierce advocacy and legal work.

As always, we'll keep you updated on these crucial efforts as they unfold – and all of our efforts in defense of people's most fundamental freedoms.

Thank you for being a part of the fight,

The ACLU Team

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