After the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year, district attorneys from major counties in Texas vowed not to vigorously prosecute people under the state’s anti-abortion laws.

Now, Texas has a plan to punish them if they don’t fall in line.

On Friday, Texas will enact Senate Bill 20, a law that forbids prosecutors from adopting a “policy” of refusing to prosecute particular types of crimes, such as abortion cases. Under the new law, these policies constitute “official misconduct” and could lead to prosecutors being removed from office.

This kind of legislation flies in the face of prosecutors’ normal ability to choose whether and how to pursue cases, said Miriam Krinsky, executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, an organization that works to support local prosecutors. Krinsky called the new law “scare tactics”.

  • pwnieb0y@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Remember when conservative sheriff’s around the country literally ran on platforms of not enforcing state covid mandates? And conservatives ate that shit up!

    But this is different I guess. 🤷

    • dan1101@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      And gun control as well, lots of county sheriffs here vowed not to enforce gun laws.

      • XIN@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I don’t know why some people are surprised by this, they are perfectly consistent: if they agree with the law it’s good and should be upheld, if they don’t agree with the law it’s evil and is destroying our country.

    • BOMBS@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      there’s absolutely no point in listening to any of their rationale or arguments because that will just leave someone either confused or brainwashed. this is never about what’s the best thing to do. instead, it’s about power.

  • Silverseren@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Do Republicans really want to open the can of worms of forcing prosecutors to actually prosecute cases? Because I see that being far more beneficial to the left in the long run.

    • Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, prosecutorial and police discretion on what to arrest and prosecute is actually the very source of much discrimination. Making it so all crimes must be prosecuted is actually a good thing I think, because it would eliminate that discrimination where some people slide while others are harshly punished.

      Having so many laws that you cannot follow them all, but it’s not a problem because they’re not enforced is a problem! It means that the government can come after anyone at any time. Forcing all breaches of law to be prosecuted to the full extent without being able to set priorities would thus require the removal of many laws, which would be good.

    • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      And I don’t wanna hear from no scientist; y’all mother fuckers lying and getting me pissed

    • 601error@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      You write the bribe check to the politician, then your balance goes down while theirs goes up.

    • dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nah, of course their abortions will be ok. Theirs is acceptable and definitely not an abortion while anyone else deserves to be in jail.

  • roguetrick@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Absolutely unenforceable. Protectors don’t write such policies even if they personally hold them.