Rowdy Fifth Circuit Flouts High Court on Abortion With No Rebuke

I’m back with another edition of Opening Argument, a reported column where I unpack complicated legal fights, dig into issues dividing appellate courts, and even explore the odd turns a case can take. Today, a look at the unusual posturing of the ongoing battle over Texas’s new abortion law.

The Fifth Circuit is getting bolder.

Last week the appeals court further delayed the lawsuit challenging Texas’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy by kicking the case over to the state Supreme Court instead of sending it back down to the trial court to play out there.

It was ...