It is easy enough for a District Judge to be all alone in Amarillo or Lubbock. But it is quite difficult for a judge to maroon herself on a deserted island along the Acela corridor. Yet, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly somehow managed that Crusoan feat.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly is presiding over prosecutions against anti-abortion advocates. And post-Dobbs, the defendants had the temerity to state that "the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion." Bad move to accurately state Supreme Court precedent. Sua sponte, the court ordered briefing on whether "any other provision of the Constitution could confer a right to abortion as an original matter, which may or may not be addressed in Dobbs, such that Dobbs may or may not be the final pronouncement on the issue, leaving an open question." This is the sort of move that an eager law clerk cooks up, but a judge is supposed to veto. Not here.
You see, Dobbs was a 14th Amendment case. But Dobbs did not address the 13th Amendment. The majority opinion did not answer whether a restriction on abortion amounts to "involuntary servitude." Thus, this issue was left open! Apparently, Justice Alito hid an invisible elephant in a non-existent mousehole.
