More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A San Antonio doctor who wrote a Washington Post op-ed claiming that he had violated Texas' six-week abortion ban now faces at least two lawsuits brought against him under the ban, both brought by plaintiffs who say they oppose the new law.
One lawsuit was filed Monday by Oscar Stilley, a former tax attorney in Arkansas who is serving a home confinement sentence for a federal conviction on tax crimes.
He filed the lawsuit against the physician, Dr. Alan Braid, in Bexar County.
In a phone interview with CNN, Stilley said he is an opponent of the law that bars most abortions in the state, but wants to clear the way for a judge to rule on its constitutionality.
"I am a supporter of the Constitution, and I am opposed to the law," Stilley said.
A second lawsuit has been filed against Braid by Felipe N. Gomez, an Illinois resident who describes himself as a "Pro Choice Plaintiff" in the suit.
The lawsuits open up a new front in the legal war around the six-week abortion ban, which went into effect on September 1.
Abortion rights advocates have so far failed to get a federal court to block the law, as the ban's supporters designed it with the goal of evading judicial review. Rather than task government officials with enforcing the ban, via criminal or regulatory punishments, the Texas state legislature essentially deputized private citizens with the ability to bring private civil litigation in state courts against abortion providers or anyone else who facilitates an abortion that violates the law.
"S.B. 8 says that 'any person' can sue over a violation, and we are starting to see that happen, including by out-of-state claimants," Marc Hearron, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Braid in a federal lawsuit challenging the abortion ban, said Monday in a statement.
Braid did not immediately respond to CNN's inquiries.
The anti-abortion activists who championed the new ban have touted the chilling effect it immediately had, as many abortion providers in the state have publicly said that they were complying with the law for now. Under the Texas law, clinics that are found, in private state court enforcement actions, to be in violation of the ban are on the hook for at least $10,000 in damages.
But John Seago, who heads Texas Right to Life, emphasized that neither case was filed "from the Pro-Life movement."
"Both cases are self-serving legal stunts, abusing the cause of action created in the Texas Heartbeat Act for their own purposes," Seago said in a statement.
"The question isn't whether Dr. Braid is going to win this lawsuit; he almost certainly will," noted Steve Vladeck, CNN legal analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
"It's how future SB8 lawsuits can be blocked," Vladeck said. "And nothing that happens in this case can prevent future lawsuits from being brought -- that's the whole point of transferring enforcement authority from a single state to a limitless class of potential private plaintiffs."
These two lawsuits may face procedural hurdles because they have been filed by individuals who do not support the law. "The judge will have to sort that out," Vladeck said.
Stilley's lawsuit was first reported by The Washington Post.
Stilley told CNN he was suing Braid because wanted a "judge to make a ruling on" the law.
"I think the doctor has guts and he has principle and I decided that I would be the one to get some clarity on this law," Stilley said.
Stilley, who was charged with several federal tax crimes in 2009 and was later convicted, said he was serving as his own lawyer in the case.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”