https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/files/epress/FR_090518.pdf
Above link is to the Memorandum Opinion of the Court and contains the court’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.
Case name is Whole Women’s Health, et al, v Charles Smith (sued in his official capacity as an Officer of the State of Texas).
Senior United States District Judge David Ezra of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, sitting at Austin, presided over this case. (Note: Judge Ezra was originally appointed to the District of Hawaii, but since taking senior status in 2012, he has lived in Austin, Texas and sat with the Western District of Texas.)
Judge Ezra reached this decision after presiding over a bench trial. His findings are detailed at length in the 53 page decision.
Judge Ezra struck the fetal burial law down on Due Process and Equal Protection laws, stating the the law placed substantial burdens on a women’s right to an abortion and as written was not rationally related to a compelling state interest.
Interestingly, however, Judge Ezra also wrote the following:
After careful analysis of current law and precedent as it exists, this Court declines to rule, as a matter of law, the State of Texas does not have a legitimate interest in enacting a well thought out and workable statute that accomplishes the asserted purpose of respecting potential life by providing for the dignified disposition of embryonic and fetal tissue remains
So it is quite possible that Texas could write a fetal burial statute that would survive court review.
