The legal tactic is not a legal tactic. It’s a granting of legal rights to pursue a cause that the State has made declaratory. It’s not new. It’s just the first time it’s been used in Abortion.
The State simply declared that the heartbeat of a baby in the womb is detectable in general at a certain time in pregnancy. It’s a statement. A statement can’t be litigated unless it’s false which in this case it’s not.
Nothing will happen to Texas for making a factual declaration.
Texas added that its residents could sue an abortion provider that aborts a baby in the womb with a heartbeat. That’s also declaratory in its format. Texas does not say such abortion providers SHALL BE sued.
All the Texas law does is confirm that its residents can sue in these circumstances.
In order to extend these State declarations to a ridiculous issue, one would have to persuade a legislation to pass and a governor to sign the ridiculous into law. NOT GO I NG TO HAPPEN.
Abortion is not a ridiculous isolated issue bandied about by a fringe element of society such as your ridiculous example.
I think you’ve missed what Texas did that is so different. Normally, under American judicial rules, you must be able to show that you have personally suffered a harm in order to have standing to sue some one. i.e. Bob can’t sue Joe for harming Mary. Only Mary has standing to sue Joe, not a 3rd party.
What Texas did that was so different was to grant standing to Bob (a 3rd party) to sue Joe (the abortion provider) in state court for providing Mary with an abortion. This was for the express purpose of preventing the Texas law from being challenged in Federal court as under federal rules, the claimant also needs to show personal harm by the entity they are suing. Since no Texas official has “harmed” anyone under the Texas law by enforcing it as a part of their official duties, Texas hopes to shield itself from suit in Federal court, thereby preventing the law from being struck down. This is the loophole that Texas was trying to take advantage of and what the SCOTUS bypassed by allowing the abortion providers to sue the state of Texas.