A lawsuit challenging Georgia’s near-ban on abortion is headed back to a trial court to decide if the people who want to overturn the law have legal standing to sue. The Georgia Supreme Court voted 6-1 on Thursday to require the trial court judge to re-examine standing issues, citing its own January decision that changed state law on who is qualified to sue.
In the meantime, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s ruling from September striking down the abortion law remains on hold. In an unrelated January case, the court ruled that only people and groups whose own rights are in question can sue in Georgia state courts, overturning an earlier rule that let some third parties sue on behalf of others. Georgia’s law prohibits most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” was present.
