Name: CNN Legal analyst discusses the recent anti-abortion law passed in Texas
Uploaded: 2021-10-13
Duration: 5 min 3 s
Description: Laura Coates: 'It's a clear violation of the Roe V Wade precedent, frankly.'

Laura Coates: "It's a clear violation of the Roe V Wade precedent, frankly." 

CNN Legal analyst discusses the recent anti-abortion law passed in Texas

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CNN Legal analyst discusses the recent Texas abortion law 

Emma and char who were just on stage talked a little bit about the texas abortion law and because we have a legal expert here, I just wanted to follow up on that and ask, you know, there have been a lot of challenges to abortion rights before. Um what is unique about this law that makes it a real threat to roe v wade? What is so unique about it? And what is so disheartening, frankly is we believe in the separation of powers for a democracy. You have the legislative branch, obviously the judicial branch, the executive branch and the whole point is to have checks and balances to be able to if there's a law that people do not want to be implemented or defend the constitution in some way you want to be able to seek redress in court. That's the whole premise of having the judicial branch of government. So imagine a way to be able to construct the law that cannot be checked. The idea of what happened in texas is unlike normally, if you don't want a law to go into existence, you're able to sue the state actor were official whose job it is to enforce the law. For example, if there is a law that says you have to shut down abortion clinics while the Chief of Police or the commissioner whose job it is to barricade or or bar them in is the one to be sued to say you have to enforce it. There you go, what they did in texas though, was to go around it an end run and say, look if there's no state actor whose job it is to enforce it. If there's no state official, no one can be sued. Therefore you have no way to get in court to make sure that it's not implemented. And it's a clear violation, not only of the roe v wade precedent, frankly, um which which is based off of the 14th amendment equal protection of course about the supremacy clause of having federal law. And of course president takes take precedent over things, but also a sense separation of powers. So you can imagine this in many ways being used in other capacities, christian if somebody has a law that they, you know, I don't want you to own a gun, 2nd Amendment issues implicated right. If I don't want you to be able to um say anything disparaging against the governor. Well, I could do an end run around things and make it so that you can never get to court. That's the scariest part about it. And one of the reasons I think this is not over not only as a blueprint, but of course as why it's so offensive to our notions of what democracy is supposed to be a question for you is business leaders. How do we enter this conversation and this debate like what's our swim lane to actually have impact that matters. That's such a great question. I think you've got frankly the widest swim lane and the most powerful you've seen over the course of modern american history from issues related to gun violence or race and culture that until corporate America speaks up, you don't really have the motivation sometimes on Capitol Hill right? You know, money makes the world go round. But you also the consumers are more um impactful than any other block in the entire world. Right? And so you think about how with Capitol Hill and voting in elections, certainly people think about voting through the ballot process, but consumers vote every single day by who they choose to actually buy from, where they choose to visit, who they choose to support and more importantly who they choose to boycott in a sense, economic boycotts. And I think that because corporate America and business leaders are in this extraordinary position to know that they can, for altruistic reasons put their thumb on the scale and light a fire. I think it's incumbent upon corporate America to view themselves as a necessary disruptor of the status quo. Because so often in Washington D. C. Political inertia rules today, it's the way it is because always been that way and until people can come in with power and necessary influence, who understand the mathematics of having people vote daily hourly by the minute on things that matter to them. There's not a lot that can disrupt that the inertia of the status quo. So I think that business leaders in particular and women specifically have the ability to compartmentalize but also to straddle all these different roles and identities and understand in a way that corporate America can be as influential as possible and influence what our elected officials do and accomplish. And the pressure that's on them. I mean look at things like north Carolina when there was the Final four and the N. C. Double A. Tournament and the pressure inflicted about um, the transgender bathroom bans and bills. Look at the discussions for places like Dick's sporting goods and the like about um what types of weapons are allowed in stores and maybe should not be. These are very real factors that Capitol Hill takes into account and it can move the needle in other ways as well.