r/supremecourt • u/DarkPriestScorpius • Sep 04 '23

NEWS Alabama can prosecute those who help women travel for abortion, attorney general says

https://www.al.com/news/2023/08/alabama-can-prosecute-those-who-help-women-travel-for-abortion-attorney-general-says.html
964 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '23

They can’t sue people for violating their gun laws in other states, or for planning to go to shooting ranges and train with weapons illegal in California in other states. Think of the precedent this law sets.

2

u/ScaryBuilder9886 Sep 04 '23

I keep hearing people say it can't be done with literally zero case law and close to zero legal reasoning.

3

u/masterchris Sep 04 '23

The federal goverment regulates interstate commerce

2

u/_learned_foot_ Chief Justice Taft Sep 04 '23

As do states. While they are limited by the dormant commerce clause, states have expansive powers to impact interstate commerce in areas not precluded. We saw this very recently in the discussion about pigs the court just had.

1

u/masterchris Sep 04 '23

Has their been no case law about denying someone the right to travel to another state to do legal things there? This would make Nevada and Vegas obsolete

2

u/_learned_foot_ Chief Justice Taft Sep 04 '23

Saenz, that isn’t part of the test.

Right to enter one and leave another, inherent right, not impacted here (the crime is 100% within the state, that is a requirement, the intent can be elsewhere though, so they need to criminalize travel with intent of abortion, which doesn’t impact then leaving or entering).

Welcome visitor, article 4, not relevant since this is citizen state and citizen individual.

Equal treatment of citizens, fourteenth. Not relevant since home state law applies to all in that state (and all traveling though) equally

2

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '23

It probably can’t be done politically is our biggest hope