A New York Supreme Court judge has rejected a Texas push to extend its abortion restrictions across state lines, ruling that New York law shields local providers from out-of-state penalties.
Justice David M. Gandin, sitting on the Ulster County Supreme Court, tossed out a lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) that targeted County Clerk Taylor Bruck for refusing to enforce a $113,000 Texas judgment against Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter, a New York abortion provider.
Paxton’s office had twice sent the judgment and a court summons to Bruck’s office, demanding she file it. Bruck refused both times, citing New York’s “shield law,” which protects abortion providers from being penalized or extradited for offering reproductive care legal under New York law.
In his decision, Gandin firmly sided with Bruck. “Dr. Carpenter’s conduct falls squarely within the definition of ‘legally protected health activity,’” he wrote, adding that her work is “the precise type of conduct (the shield law) was designed to protect,” according to The Times-Union.
For Bruck, the ruling validated what she and her team believed from the start. “The decision confirms what we had assumed all along — that we should not have filed the Texas judgment,” she told The Times-Union. “The law seemed obvious to us, but since it was untested, certain people had questions about it.”
The case quickly became the first major test of New York’s shield law — a statute passed in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal to protect providers and patients from prosecution under other states’ abortion bans.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) intervened in the case in September to defend the law. “Texas has no authority in New York, and no power to impose its cruel abortion ban here,” James said at the time.
After the ruling, Bruck expressed gratitude for the legal protection the law provides. “We’re fortunate to live in New York state and have a Senate and Assembly that had the foresight to pass the shield law,” she said. “In this first test case, it worked exactly as intended.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) earlier this year signed legislation allowing private citizens to sue anyone who provides or distributes abortion medication “to or from” Texas — part of a growing effort to restrict abortion access nationwide.
Paxton argued that New York was constitutionally required to recognize Texas’s judgment under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, which typically compels states to honor one another’s court rulings. Legal observers have suggested that argument could eventually bring the dispute before the U.S. Supreme Court, The New York Times reported.
Gandin, however, declined to address that constitutional question, noting that Paxton’s office hadn’t requested an “independent declaration” on the issue.
Texas has 30 days to appeal the decision but hasn’t indicated whether it will.
