Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-463_3ebh.pdf
Page Number: 28.0

Cite as:  595 U. S. ____ (2021) 

5 

THOMAS, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part 
Opinion of THOMAS, J. 

merely grants authority to the Texas Medical Board to en-
force  other  laws  that  do  regulate  abortion.    See  Tex.  Occ. 
Code Ann. §164.055 (West 2012).  Thus, the saving clause 
does not apply, and S. B. 8 explicitly forecloses enforcement 
of its requirements by the Texas Medical Board.2 
  The  principal  opinion  contends  that  the  Act  “confirm[s 
its] understanding” by explicitly proscribing criminal pros-
ecution.  Ante, at 13, n. 3 (citing Tex. Health & Safety Code 
Ann.  §171.207(a)).    By  withholding  criminal  enforcement 
authority,  the  principal  opinion  argues,  S. B. 8  tacitly 
leaves  at  least  some  civil  enforcement  authority  in  place.  
But “[t]he force of any negative implication . . . depends on 
context.”  Marx v. General Revenue Corp., 568 U. S. 371, 381 
(2013).  A statute may “indicat[e] that adopting a particular 
rule  . . . was  probably not  meant  to signal  any  exclusion.”  
Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted). 
  That is the case here.  Again, S. B. 8 repeatedly bars gov-
ernmental  enforcement.    See  supra,  at  3–4.    That  Texas 
identified a “specific example” of withheld enforcement au-
thority alongside the Act’s “general” proscription “is not in-
consistent  with  the  conclusion  that  [S. B. 8]  sweeps  as 
broadly as its language suggests.”  Ali v. Federal Bureau of 
Prisons, 552 U. S. 214, 226–227 (2008).  Texas “may have 
simply intended to remove any doubt” that criminal prose-
cution  is  unavailable  under  S. B. 8.    Id.,  at  226;  see  also 

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2 For the remaining licensing officials—the heads of the Texas Health 
and Human Services Commission, the Texas Board of Nursing, and the 
Texas Board of Pharmacy—the principal opinion identifies no law that 
connects these officials to S. B. 8 or overrides the Act’s preclusion of gov-
ernmental enforcement authority.  Indeed, as to the Health and Human 
Services Commission, S. B. 8 explicitly forecloses enforcement authority.  
The Act states: “The commission shall enforce [Chapter 171] except for 
Subchapter H,” where S. B. 8 is codified, “which shall be enforced exclu-
sively through . . . private civil enforcement actions . . . and may not be 
enforced by the commission.”  Tex. Health & Safety Code Ann. §171.005 
(West 2021).