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Notes -
They definitely ruled that there was no available pre-enforcement relief, practically if not explicitly, which is all I'm contending.
I don't think that's an accurate summary :
or
The crux was instead that the Court turned away the sort of response that the plaintiffs would have found sufficient, whether in a pre-enforcement context or otherwise. The plaintiffs wanted -- with reason! -- an injunction binding either all court clerks from accepting, or all individual Texans, from filing cases.
That's why I said "practically if not explicitly." The only entities SCOTUS allowed the pre-enforcement challenge to go ahead for were a set of state licensing officials. No injunction on them would actually have any impact on the civil suits that are at the core of SB8.
SCOTUS only allowed the pre-enforcement challenge against state licensing officials in that case. But even Thomas pointed to extant state pre-enforcement challenges leading to preliminary injunctions by name, and that specific case he cited (correctly, imo) resulted in a state-wide declaratory judgement before the end of the year focusing on the procedural aspects and edit: eventually got a temporary injunction against the named plaintiffs and affiliates in that case (though I can't find the current disposition).
Fair enough, I guess I'm reluctant to farm out the vindication of federal constitutional rights to state courts (though I recognize that has been common practice). I suppose state courts (at least in Texas) seem to have the benefit of issuing declaratory judgements.
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