American Civil Liberties Union

This case is the result of a prosecutor's decision to put a novel, sweeping, and impermissible construction on a statute. Looking to Senate Bill ("S.B.") 319, which amended the definition of "individual" in the Penal Code, the Potter County District Attorney maintains that Texas Health & Safety Code § 481.122, the statute prohibiting the delivery of a controlled substance to children, applies to the conduct of pregnant women towards their fetuses. But neither the statute nor the legislative history contains any hint of such an intention. The prosecution of the Appellants here violates the United States and Texas Constitutions in at least three fundamental ways.