Supreme Court allows lawsuits against Texas anti-abortion law to proceed

The Supreme Court on Friday said some lawsuits against Texas' anti-abortion law — the strictest in the country — can proceed.

The big picture: The court's decision is not a ruling on the merits of Texas' law — and leaves the law in place — but it paves the way for the courts to decide whether that law is constitutional.

Driving the news: The decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, says abortion clinics in the state can challenge the Texas law's constitutionality in court. But it allows only a small slice of those lawsuits to proceed.

Texas banned abortions after the detection of fetal cardiac activity, which usually happens around the sixth week of pregnancy. But rather than a straightforward government regulation, it enforced that law by allowing private citizens to sue other private citizens who provide or facilitate an abortion.