"Interlocutory" Appeal Spells The End For Texas Abortion Informed Consent Litigation

A. When it's final.
 

On January 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decided an appeal from a preliminary injunction that had blocked enforcement of Texas' new abortion informed-consent statute. The Texas statute requires a physician to perform and display a sonogram of the fetus, play the heart sounds of the fetus, and explain to the woman the results of each procedure, and establishes a 24-hour waiting period in most cases. It was scheduled to take effect on September 1 of last year, but was enjoined by a federal district court in Austin.

The Fifth Circuit reversed and dissolved the injunction. The court's opinion addresses important issues of constitutional law, and is of obvious interest to the lay public and press because of its controversial subject-matter and result. But the procedural outcome of the appeal reveals an important truth about certain types of cases where a