You're listening to the Libertarian Podcast from the Hoover Institution.

I'm your host Tom Church and the Libertarian is Professor Richard Epstein.

Richard is the Peter and Kirsten- Bedford Senior Fellow here at the Hoover Institution,

the Lawrence A Tish Professor of Law at NYU, and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago.

Today we're discussing the controversial

abortion law in Texas which went into effect on Wednesday, September 1st.

Now later that evening, late that evening, the Supreme Court released a 5-4 opinion stating that it would not block the law at this time,

but also wouldn't prohibit ongoing legal challenges.

It was very clear that it was not weighing on its constitutionality.

Now in their decision, Richard, the majority wrote

that those challenging the law had not made their case

in the face of complex and novel procedural questions. And those novel procedural questions have to do with, I think the most fascinating part of this case is its penalty structure because it doesn't permit state officials to enforce the abortion law, which is this law is banning abortions in the presence of a heartbeat usually around six weeks.

Instead, the law is allowing anyone in Texas to bring a civil suit against anyone aiding and abetting

abortion after the cutoff.

So I'd like to get your thoughts on this unusual enforcement mechanism?

Sure, let me just start with the following illustration.

Generally speaking, there's a very sharp difference between public and private

enforcement of anything.

And what happens is that the public is designed

to enforce things that have potential for diffuse harms,

even if they don't harm any particular individual.

So you could sort of make it illegal to have animals in your house of

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