Shane McGuire, 114th District Judge Austin Reeve Jackson’s attorney, on Wednesday speaks about a lawsuit that Jackson is named in and that challenges Senate Bill 8, also known as the “heartbeat bill,” at the Axia Center in Tyler. State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, authored the bill that prohibits abortions after six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy. SB 8 is set to go into effect on Sept. 1.

Citing a lack of jurisdiction, District Judge Austin Reeve Jackson is asking a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit in which he is named and targets a recently passed bill allowing citizens to sue abortion providers.

Jackson’s attorney, Shane McGuire, filed on Wednesday a motion to dismiss the lawsuit from Whole Woman’s Health, a women’s reproductive health clinic that provides abortions, that seeks to invalidate the state’s Senate Bill 8.

The law, authored by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, will prohibit abortions after six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy. The law, which is set to go into effect Sept. 1, allows people to sue a physician who performs an abortion and possibly be awarded no less than $10,000 in statutory damages, according to the text of the bill.

The class-action suit filed July 13 in federal court seeks to stop officials like Jackson, of the 114th District Court, and Smith County District Clerk Penny Clarkston from processing potential abortion-related lawsuits against providers.

In the document, McGuire states the Austin-based federal court has no jurisdiction to grant the clinic’s “baseless request.” He writes that a federal court has no jurisdiction to opine on the meaning of the law outside of a case or controversy.

McGuire also states the plaintiffs in the case cannot make claims against Jackson because of sovereign immunity, meaning a person can’t sue the government without consent from the government. He called any relief against state judges “fatally flawed” because of a lack of case or controversy.

McGuire states in the motion to dismiss that the plaintiffs’ request for relief is a way to effectively tell Jackson how to hear lawsuits that may be brought to his court under SB 8 and instruct him to dismiss outright.

McGuire called the plaintiffs’ sought-after relief a “thinly-veiled request for this court to tell Judge Jackson how to be a judge.” He asked the court to dismiss the claims against Jackson without any further burdens of litigation.

During a news conference at the Axia Center in Tyler on Wednesday, Jackson said he was selected for the lawsuit because of his commitment to the rule of law and biblical values.

“Make no mistake this lawsuit is a direct attack by far-left groups on the rule of law and the right of pro-life communities to elect people who share their values,” Jackson said. “This is cancel culture at its finest.”

Hughes, who was also at the Wednesday news conference, said the lawsuit targeting his bill is radical.

“It shows how desperate that some of these groups are to continue doing illegal abortions,” Hughes said. “Suing Judge Jackson, suing every judge in Texas — that’s a radical move. We believe the law is clear on this, and the judicial process is going to run its course.”