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Conservative Texas lawyer Jonathan Mitchell is targeting PrEP access after abortion rights
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From this Advocate article:
"Jonathan Mitchell, the former solicitor general who helped write Senate Bill 8, the restrictive abortion law, opened a private law firm in Texas in 2018 to go after decades of the High Court's rulings, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Since the beginning of his career, Mitchell has been vocal about his desire to dismantle decades of decisions he believes depart from the Constitution’s language or recognize constitutional rights that do not have a textual foundation. Due to the Supreme Court’s continued shift in his direction, his cases will likely serve as a bellwether of the country’s legal system.
As the architect of Senate Bill 8, which makes everyday Texas citizens abortion bounty hunters, Mitchell, who once clerked under Justice Antonin Scalia, has spent years advocating for the Supreme Court to reverse Roe vs. Wade. His legal theories and court cases laid the groundwork for the ruling to fall.
In the four years since opening a one-person firm in Austin, Mitchell has litigated on a wide range of issues, including affirmative action, marriage equality, and contraception mandates.
Mitchell now has set his sights on Descovy and Truvada, two medications that help prevent HIV transmission when taken as PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, because those medications enable homosexual behavior, the suit states.
In the case Kelley v. the United States of America, filed in federal court in 2020, Mitchell represents several clients who object to the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that insurance providers cover, among other things, preventive medications specifically for PrEP.
“The PrEP mandate forces religious employers to provide coverage for drugs that facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior, prostitution, sexual promiscuity, and intravenous drug use,” the lawsuit states. “It also compels religious employers and religious individuals who purchase health insurance to subsidize these behaviors as a condition of purchasing health insurance.”
Regarding the plaintiffs, the suit claims “neither they nor any of their family members are engaged in behavior that transmits HIV.”"
We need to stop this man from ruining our lives.
Top Comment:
Why are Republicans so fucking obsessed with sex?
Lawyers of reddit, what are some interesting laws/loopholes?
Main Post: Lawyers of reddit, what are some interesting laws/loopholes?
Top Comment: In terms of loopholes, my criminal law professor was also a practicing criminal defense barrister, and he told this story about a case he had won: The event happened in the city of Jervis Bay in Australia, which is notable because it's an annexed part of federal land so that our capital territory can have an active port. My professor's client had gotten into a fight on the beach and, in knee deep water, proceeded to beat the shit out of the guy he was fighting. Assault charges were laid and it went to court. My professor managed to find that, at the time, the delineation of the federal land around Jervis bay ended at the high water mark. Also, at that time, the delineation of the coastal region belonging to the state ended at the low water mark. He managed to show that, because the crime had happened in between these two points, neither the state or federal court had jurisdiction to try the client, and he got off. Obviously the definitions were amended after that so that there would not be such a gap, but that one guy got through.