TL;DR
SCOTUS tossed it on standing…could still come back.
I think a lot of people are surprised by this, but I think it’s mostly 9-0 because it wasn’t really settled on any merits – these people just did not have standing to sue.
I’m pretty sure this came out of the 5th Circuit and I’d expect to see more rulings like this smacking the 5th Circuit down because it specifically has gone off the rails and started making insane rulings unsupported by any law or precedent.
While SCOTUS has made some questionable rulings in the last several years, they’re still going to punt in obvious situations where they can.
This, they aren’t protecting anyone’s right, just picking a better case.
Ah, so they do remember what standing is. Surprising, given their selective amnesia on the topic during the student loan forgiveness case.
The 5th’s rulings are supported by the law of God! /s
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the court, wrote that while plaintiffs have “sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections to elective abortion and to FDA’s relaxed regulation of mifepristone,” that does not mean they have a federal case.
Curve ball Kavanaugh is so hard to pin down. I’m grateful he voted to protect access, but I can’t seem to predict his position. Maybe with time he’ll turn into the right-wing version of Thomas and become a full throttle traitor to his party.
Not just Kavanaugh in this case. This was a 9-0 decision, even Alito and Thomas voted to protect access.
Alito gotta raise his reputation points after the leaks and flag debacle.
Good point. I realized after I commented that he was just writing on behalf of the court. Regardless, he’s been the only Justice to dissent from party opinion on several cases recently.
voted to protect access
That’s wholly incorrect.
They refused to consider the case because “the plaintiffs failed to show they had suffered any injury”.
Moreover, the law has never permitted doctors to challenge the government’s loosening of general public safety requirements simply because more individuals might then show up at emergency rooms or in doctors’ offices with follow-on injuries. Citizens and doctors who object to what the law allows others to do may always take their concerns to the Executive and Legislative Branches and seek greater regulatory or legislative restrictions
Pg 3 of the opinion
No one wants to set a precedent for sueing the government every time they don’t stop a potential bad thing from happening.
It’s a unanimous decision, but they didn’t really vote to protect access at all. They simply agreed that the doctors who filed the lawsuit has no standing to challenge it in the courts in the first place. So they basically said the lawsuit wasn’t valid, they didn’t rule on the merits at all.
The only good thing out of this is that it indirectly reinforces the rulings of the FDA as legitimate. So the Dismantling of the Administrative State is put on hold temporarily. Although who knows what the next case may bring…
they didn’t really vote to protect access at all.
It’s incredible how easily people assume something to be true and take the time to unintentionally spread misinformation in a public forum. Had they just taken two minutes to read the content which they’re commenting on, this could easily be avoided. I mean, “rejected” is right in the headline - really didn’t even need to read the article.
And yet people are upvoting these inaccuracies because they emotionally agree with the comment even though it’s proven false in the headline.
Well, clicking the link and reading it is too much work, why not simply upvote, make a snarky comment, and move on?
Moreover, the law has never permitted doctors to challenge the government’s loosening of general public safety requirements simply because more individuals might then show up at emergency rooms or in doctors’ offices with follow-on injuries. Citizens and doctors who object to what the law allows others to do may always take their concerns to the Executive and Legislative Branches and seek greater regulatory or legislative restrictions
Pg 3 of the opinion is pretty clear that launching a case against the government for not banning something will just result in your case being DOA. Yes its technically a standing issue, but they’ve essentially ruled that you can’t have standing to sue under this situation. Effectively ruling on the merits.
It didn’t protect access in the sense that it prevented legislation restricting it but it did prevent unmerited lawsuits seeking to prevent its national sale.
Good, because beyond the abortion issue, there are other legitimate uses of mifepristone.
Apart from its predominant use in medically induced abortions, mifepristone proves valuable in addressing Cushing syndrome and uterine leiomyomas.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557612/
So making this illegal wouldn’t have only hurt the abortion rights cause, it would basically be a fuck you to anyone with Cushing syndrome.
To be fair, this was never really about making mifepristone illegal outright. It was mostly about the FDA rules that would allow by mail order without first consulting a doctor. Consulting a doctor for its other uses would allow it to be prescribed for them.
it would basically be a fuck you to anyone with Cushing syndrome.
Given that conservatives hate women, I can’t see how that wouldn’t be another feature-not-bug.
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Hopefully after they finish women and LGBTQA people hopefully then we can start a war with Iran, Irak, Israel, China, Ruzzia, Venezuela and or Mexico. That could help the housing crisis. Could help with the incarceration numbers if they use inmates first…if you think about it.
