Texas Abortion Ban Next Stop Hotly Debated by Appeals Court (1)

A Fifth Circuit oral argument over whether the Texas Supreme Court should weigh in on a Texas law that bans most abortions became so heated Friday that one judge told another “this court doesn’t litigate on behalf of one side or the other.”

The oral argument featured frequent sparring between Judges Edith H. Jones and Stephen A. Higginson, who appeared to disagree on whether the state’s top court should be asked to decide if professional licensing board members are proper defendants in a case challenging the constitutionality of the law barring abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The federal ...