EU resident wondering how the US legislative process works. For example the recent Texas abortion law, in the hypothetical situation that the majority of Texans don’t agree with the new law, what recourse do they have? What would the possibilities for repealing this law look like?
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Boycotts
Nobody has mentioned this yet in these comments, but boycotting a particular state can be a powerful tool. Back in March 2016, my state legislature (North Carolina) passed a very controversial bill, House Bill 2 (HB2), more commonly known as the “Bathroom Bill”. Among other things, it barred municipalities from enacting local non-discrimination ordinances. It also mandated that transgender individuals use the bathroom corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates.
The political and economic fallout was immediate. Concerts and other special events were canceled in protest. Companies like PayPal canceled plans to expand into North Carolina. Several governments (both state and local) outside of North Carolina enacted bans on official travel (for government employees) into North Carolina. The National Basketball Association moved the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte to New Orleans, the Atlantic Coast Conference moved its football championship game from Charlotte to Orlando, and the National Association for Collegiate Athletics threatened to remove all subsequent championship games in all sports from the state unless HB2 was repealed.
The governor responsible for signing HB2 into law lost his re-election bid in November 2016 by a narrow margin, almost certainly a result of his support for HB2. In 2017, under the new governor, the state legislature decided that the political and economic fallout was too much to handle, and so they repealed the law.
I won’t be surprised if people started to boycott Texas over SB8.
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