Excerpts:
“Seattle responded to the request by filing a lawsuit in Travis County, stating they cannot comply because Texas has no jurisdiction in Washington State, and no care was provided by the hospital in Texas. They also point out that the Dormant Commerce Clause, protected by the United States Constitution, “protects the right to interstate travel, including to obtain healthcare services.” By targeting out-of-state hospitals for enforcement of laws that only apply within the jurisdiction of Texas, they “discriminate against healthcare based on an interstate element,” violating constitutional protections, according to the legal filing. Lastly, Seattle Children’s Hospital cannot comply due to a shield law passed by Washington State. This law bars the hospital from providing any patient data and from responding to subpoenas pursuant to “protected healthcare services” obtained within the jurisdiction of Washington. Protected healthcare services include abortion, reproductive care, and gender-affirming care.”
“This case promises to be extraordinarily complex. Seattle Children’s Hospital is challenging the jurisdiction of the demands directly in a Texas state court. Regardless of what the local court decides, the claims are likely to go to the Texas Supreme Court. Given that the claims also have a time limit on them and that appeals in Texas automatically favor the attorney general due to an automatic lifting of stays in the state, Seattle Children’s Hospital workers and providers for trans patients from Texas could be under legal jeopardy. Ultimately, the case presents questions of conflicting state laws and regulation of conduct across state lines, and the implications of those laws could be dire for abortion and trans care nationwide.”
Thank you Seattle Children’s Hospital for standing up to that bullshit.
Also thank you to Washington state for passing the shield law to make this happen.
“Go fuck yourself, Texas.” - Sincerely, Washington state residents
I feel that even without the shield law, this would be a violation of HIPAA
HIPAA has exceptions, which include orders to disclosed PHI to the court.
… What Ken Paxton is attempting isn’t legal though. Texas has no jurisdiction in this sham and following the order would violate Washington state law.
remember when they all bitched and moaned about ‘government death panels’?
like it hadn’t been going on already at the insurance companies.
It makes perfect sense. It’s about control by any means. The fact of the matter is that, by definition, conservatives don’t want progress. They’ll say and do anything to stand in the way of progress, even if it’s contradictory.
suffering from major brain damage because they were exposed to too much lead and other harmful chemicals as children due to corporate deregulation
As someone old enough to having played with all these wooden toys coated in shiny lead-based colors followed by plastics with even more harmful chemicals… I’m pretty sure you have to start with a lot of damage already, then develop the habit of trying to eat your toys. Which is a gateway drug to drinking bleach.
It’s the lead they used to put in gas that was the real problem. Up until a few decades ago basically everyone was regularly exposed to unhealthy levels of environmental lead because of leaded gas. It mostly has an impact on children so it’s really just the Boomers and older GenX who grew up exposed that are still around with lead-addled brains, instead of all of society like it used to be before the switch to unleaded gas.
People always think that if you invent a Time Machine you should kill Hitler when he was a kid. Screw that, the man we really need to kill as a kid is Thomas Midgley Jr… Dude invented both Tetraethyllead and CFCs.
Lead gas is also still in use! There are lots of old planes that take higher octane gas, and because rich people tend to own planes, the government allows aviation fuel to still have lead, leading to poisoning children that happen to live downwind general aviation airports. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/20/aviation-lead-fuel-00081641
When regular leaded gas was banned in my country I was nearly 6, 14 when the last leaded high-octane gas was sold…
I looked up the US for reference… to find 1996 as the year leaded gas was finally banned.
So I still don’t believe environment-induced brain damage is an excuse.
This case promises to be extraordinarily complex.
It really shouldn’t be complex at all. It should be extremely simple: Is Seattle within the jurisdiction of the Texas AG or not?
I guess the issue is that they have to convince a Texas court of that, instead of some kind of reasonable judge.
Until it gets kicked up to federal court, at which point a judge will laugh Texas out of the courtroom. This is a huge waste of time that will achieve nothing.
“This is a huge waste of time that will achieve nothing.”
That’s the GOPs entire platform.
And then it goes to the Supreme Court, where a majority of the justices have already been bought and paid for well in advance
The confederate states split from the union because they wanted the federal government to force free states to return escaped slaves, effectively enforcing the laws of one state on the residents of another. We are reenacting the events that led to the first Civil War.
the fact of trans people being involved has the effect of making anything complicated, apparently. It’s just sooooo complicated to checks notes allow us the same rights and protections as anyone else. But oh hey someone’s building a database of trans people while passing a bunch of anti-trans legislation? Hold on now it’s complicated he may have a point.
And, of course, it’s only trans people for now. If they can build a database of people getting gender-affirming care, they can build a database of people getting any other sort of medical care. For example, care for HIV or sickle cell anemia or Tay Sachs. And then there’s the ability to make a database of women getting legal abortions, certain forms of birth control or IVF treatments. Awfully convenient way to keep track of ‘problem’ members of society, isn’t it?
More reasons to never, ever fucking step foot in the fucking shithole that is Texas.
Drive around it if you fucking have to.
As a Washingtonian, don’t fuck with Seattle Children’s Hospital, you piece of shit.
I once stood within 3 feet of Greg Abbott. Every single day of my life, I regret not punching him straight in the nose. It wouldn’t have changed anything, but he most certainly deserved it then, and double deserves it now.
We recently tried, and the whole thing played out like a corruption carnival. An astounding number of “liberals” in the Texas legislature suddenly switched sides on the biggest smoking gun issue they could have impeached him with (that he had illegally given information to Nate Paul to influence an investigation). Turn them upside down, and watch the money fall out of their pockets, I say.
For those who want to see what I’m talking about, look at how many democrats voted to acquit on article 4 as compared to every other article:
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-impeachment-vote/
If you’re implying violence, I can nearly guarantee that it would make him a martyr for the cause. The religious right love to see their leaders on crosses down here.
The absolute best hope for Texas is for liberal candidates to unite around issues that moderate rural Texans can get behind. When democrats in the federal government get our candidates to do things like make strong anti-gun statements, it only ends up making it impossible to win here. We have to focus on getting power before we make strong statements about using power in ways that offend rural Texans.
