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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   24126 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 10, 2024

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FDA vs Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the mifepristone case, was decided by SCOTUS. Full verdict here. The anti-abortion plaintiffs lose 9-0 on standing, with (quite properly for a case lost on standing) no discussion of the merits. Kav writes for the majority, with Thomas concurring on a technical point of standing law (on one of three theories of standing advanced by AHM the majority think they lose on the facts, but Thomas admits that this is correct under current precedent buy under a correct reading of the Constitution he thinks they lose on the law instead).

Quick thoughts:

  • The unanimous opinion treats this as an easy standing case. It is somewhat longer than an opinion needs to be in an easy standing case, which suggests that at least some of the justices wanted to benchslap Judge Kacsmaryk and the 5th Circuit panel.
  • Standing requirements make lawfare harder. If the right-wing Justices wanted to unleash a campaign of right-leaning lawfare then they could have decided this case differently, so it looks like the small-c conservative aversion to lawfare is holding up even with a right-wing Court.
  • Nevertheless, I suspect the pro-life movement can find a plaintiff with standing - perhaps a Catholic mail carrier who objects to delivering abortifacients could sue under the Comstock Act (which looks like the plaintiffs' best argument on the merits). But nothing is going to be decided before the election if a plaintiff wiht standing files a new suit.
  • The Project 2025 says that an incoming Republican administration should aggressively enforce the Comstock Act (which is prsumptively constitutional post-Dobbs) against pharmacies posting mifepristone to patients. This would render this litigation irrelevant.

mifepristone

So correct me if I am wrong, but this is suppose to induce a miscarriage at home and the woman is supposed to deal with the remains herself?

Mail-order abortificants seem like something that is going to blow up in proponents faces.

The FDA authorization for mifepristone is for abortions up 10 weeks, at which point the fetus is, at best, about the size of guppy. In the context of all the shed uterine tissue that's expelled alongside it, the "remains" are not even easily identifiable as such.

Aside, mifepristone is just one of two pharmacological components of the standard "medical" (as opposed to surgical) abortion. The other is misoprostol, which can induce abortion by itself, just somewhat less reliably. Mail-order abortions would not stop if mifepristone became completely unavailable tomorrow.

Mail-order abortions would not stop if mifepristone became completely unavailable tomorrow.

The government can't even stop people from shipping cocaine though the mail I doubt there is any real impact they are going to have on mail-order any sort of pill regardless of the laws.

The government can't stop people from building their own guns, but that doesn't stop them from jailing otherwise law-abiding and productive citizens. They likewise can't stop criminals from purchasing guns illegally, but that doesn't stop them from shooting law-abiding and productive citizens to death under questionable circumstances in an effort to do so.

"Enforcement will be difficult and costly" is not an argument for non-enforcement, especially if most of the difficulties and cost will be borne by the outgroup.

You responded to a filtered comment.

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