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Texas AG Asks SCOTUS To Repeal Jane Doe Decision Weeks After She Has Abortion

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Grace Carr Reporter
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Texas and 10 other states filed a brief Monday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to return its decision allowing illegal immigrant Jane Doe to have an abortion back to the lower courts.

“No court has ever before recognized such broad rights for unlawfully present aliens with virtually no connections to the country,” Paxton wrote in the brief, according to Dallas News. “Under the reasoning of the courts below, there will be no meaningful limit on the constitutional rights an unlawfully present alien can invoke simply by attempting to enter this country.”

The brief comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the Supreme Court to hand back its decision allowing Doe to have an abortion to a lower court, in order to avoid setting a precedent of illegal immigrants coming to the U.S. for abortions.

“The Justice Department believes the judgment under review should be vacated, and discipline may be warranted against Jane Doe’s attorneys,” DOJ spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a November statement regarding the DOJ’s request. Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia also support the DOJ’s request via the Monday brief.

“That the government failed to seek further review quickly enough is entirely their own responsibility,” Carter Phillips, an Austin attorney, said in a Monday news release supporting American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyers who defended Doe. Phillips filed a brief Monday on behalf of the ACLU, asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the DOJ’s request for review.

The brief comes after a U.S. federal appeals court ruled in late October that Doe could get an abortion, overturning its previous decision to put a hold on the case, according to Politico. The girl crossed the border illegally Sept. 7 and was roughly 15 weeks pregnant when she had her abortion. (RELATED: JANE DOE: ‘I FEEL GOOD’ About Decision To Get Abortion).

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