A 1982 Supreme Court decision involving Harvard Square restaurant Grendel’s Den could serve as legal precedent to overturn Texas’s recent law banning most abortions. A 1982 Supreme Court decision involving Harvard Square restaurant Grendel’s Den could serve as legal precedent to overturn Texas’s recent law banning most abortions, Harvard emeritus professors Laurence H. Tribe ’62 and David Rosenberg wrote in a Boston Globe opinion piece last week. In the Globe op-ed , Tribe and Rosenberg wrote that the new Texas abortion law displays “fatal constitutional flaws,” citing the Massachusetts court case as precedent. The Texas law, which went into effect on Sept. 1 and sparked national controversy, bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and notably relies on individuals to enforce the act through civil lawsuits against people who perform abortion procedures. The law provides Texas citizens a financial incentive to litigate: plaintiffs who win are entitled to $10,000 and covered legal fees, while those who lose do not have to pay defendants’ legal expenses. The Supreme Court refused to block the law earlier this month, though it did not rule on its constitutionality. The Justice Department filed suit on Sept. 9 arguing that the law violates the […]
