Law’s logic.....

Newsom borrows Texas abortion law’s logic

By JEREMY B. WHITE, GRAPH MASSARA and ISABELLA BLOOM

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to give Texas a taste of its own medicine.

Newsom will work with the Legislature to enact in California a version of Texas’ restrictive new abortion law, which private citizens can enforce via lawsuit. The key difference: Rather than targeting abortion providers, Newsom wants to empower Californians to go after “anyone who manufactures, distributes or sells” assault weapons or untraceable ‘ghost gun’ kits. “If the most efficient way to keep these devastating weapons off our streets is to add the threat of private lawsuits,” Newsom said in a statement, “we should do just that."

The Democratic governor situated his decision squarely in the context of Texas’ ‘abortion bounty’ law. Newsom said he was “outraged” by the high court deciding to let Texas’ law stand pending an ongoing legal challenge, and he vowed that California would respond in kind: “If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives,” he said, “then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way.”

We’ll see about the proposed bill’s political prospects — it’s always tougher to pass ambitious legislation in an election year when vulnerable lawmakers are sweating campaigns, a dynamic that could be exacerbated in 2022 by the churn of redistricting — and about its constitutional viability, should it become law. But as a political provocation and a statement of what Newsom has long held up as California’s values, the governor’s message is clear.

California voters’ broad embrace of abortion rights and gun control are well-established. Newsom’s reference to Swiss Army Knives is a clear swipe at a federal judge who likened assault weapons to these popular tools in striking down California’s assault weapons ban, leading Newsom to denounce the judge as a “wholly-owned subsidiary of the gun lobby and the National Rifle Association.” Newsom has been happy to leap into battle with the N.R.A. and allies throughout his political career — the type of stance that still resonates with most of California’s electorate but contrasts with Texas’ famously lax gun laws.

And with abortion rights likely to animate the midterms, Newsom is working to elevate that contrast. The Legislature is already set to pursue laws to help California welcome abortion patients from outside the state, particularly following recommendations to that end from Newsom’s Future of Abortion Council. Newsom himself has vowed to make California “a sanctuary” — a choice of words that, naturally, echoes another long-running source of border-state conflict. Democratic House candidates are running on the issue by denouncing Republican incumbents as would-be destroyers of Roe v. Wade. And Vice President Kamala Harris is warning “women will die” if the high court guts Roe.

Newsom loves to compare California favorably to Texas (and Florida), and he’s spoiling for a fight with blue California’s longstanding red rival. We’ll see if it pays political dividends.