Supreme Court to hear challenges to Texas abortion law on Nov. 1, but won't block it in meantime

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to review Texas' restrictive abortion law, but declined to block it while examining "Texas' unusual enforcement scheme and whether the Department of Justice has the right to sue to block the law," NPR reports.

On Nov. 1, the nine justices will hear oral arguments from two different challengers — Texas abortion providers, as well as the Justice Department, who also asked the court last week to block the effective ban while legal challenges play out, writes Bloomberg. The court will not be directly considering the constitutionality of the law, which empowers private citizens to sue anyone who aids or abets an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued only a partial concurrence with the majority, dissenting specifically to the court's refusal to temporarily halt the law's enforcement as challenges are considered. "Women seeking abortion care in Texas are entitled to relief from this court now," wrote Sotomayor. "Because of the court's failure to act today, that relief, if it comes, will be too late for many."

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The November hearing comes one month before arguments in "another pivotal abortion case," Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, "which directly challenges the abortion-rights precedent established in 1973 under Roe v. Wade," says CNBC.