The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will consider whether to restrict access to a widely used abortion drug — even in states where the procedure is still allowed.
The case concerns the drug mifepristone that — when coupled with another drug — is one of the most common abortion methods in the United States.
The decision means the conservative-leaning court will again wade into the abortion debate after overturning Roe v. Wade last year, altering the landscape of abortion rights nationwide and triggering more than half the states to outlaw or severely restrict the procedure.
I suspect the Court is politically savvy enough to avoid making mifepristone illegal right before the election. They’ll make a soft open-ended decision that leaves it unrestricted and come back to it in a few years, then make it illegal.
I suspect the Court is politically savvy enough to avoid making mifepristone illegal right before the election.
That question isn’t before the court and making mifepristone illegal isn’t even a potential outcome of this case.
God whatever, they won’t restrict it nationwide either. I’m almost certain they won’t do anything controversial that close to the election.
Oh it’s quite possible that they’ll rule the FDA didn’t follow their process and return some restrictions. This court does care about optics but not to the point that they’ll change rulings over it. If that were true then Roe wouldn’t have been overturned.
youre more optimistic than me. to me, they pull an unpopular move in a time when trump isn’t likely to win, wait four years, until a non-Trump conservative gets the nomination - win.
or they do it and trump wins anyway- win.
Have you been living under a rock for the last couple of decades? The newest chucklefucks appointed to SCOTUS don’t give two shits about appearances and will do whatever they want at any time.
They care a lot about appearances, what they don’t care about is actual popular opinion or democracy.
The constitution says nothing about this. Which means any ruling is judicial overstep
That’s not at all how the law works. There are millions of federal statutes and regulations, all of which need interpretation.
Also, the Constitution does talk about health and welfare and interstate commerce powers.
The Supreme Court is supposed to rule on the constitutuonality of laws passed by the legislature. The court has no power to make laws.
Making a decision about the legality of medication is judicial overreach. That power is granted to congress alone, unless they have delegated some of that power to the executive branch (such as through the FDA).
That’s a rightwing lie about what the Court is supposed to do. The high court may rule on appeals from the state’s highest court’s decision and any federal court’s decision. Virtually all modern First Amendment freedom is ”courtmade law,” likewise for the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Fourteenth. Miranda rights are “court made,” exclusionary rule.
Conservatives love it too. They love them some court made “government contractor defense,” in which the originalst textualist Justoce Scalia extended the federal government’s sovereign immunity to defense contractors based on no statute or constitution.
Scotus isn’t being called to pass upon the legality of medication, it is being called to pass upon the legality of the federal substantive and procedural due process given to stakeholders in the administrative rulemaking process. It’s very much a constitutional issue, insomuch as due process, notice, and comment, are prerequisites to Constitutional due process. Sort of seems like you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Making a decision about the legality of medication is judicial overreach.
That isn’t whats happening. What’s going on is that the FDA is being challenged that it didn’t follow it’s own process on approving the relaxation of rules regarding the prescribing and dispensing of Mifepristone. If SCOTUS rules that they didn’t follow their process mifepristone will still be available but will return to being harder to get…at least until it DOES follow its own process.
The Supreme Court has no authority to “rule” on the constitutionality of laws. They took that power for themselves (Marbury v Madison) and nobody called them on it. They’ve now decided that the constitution isn’t comprehensive and they must also consider the customs and traditions of the nation (and even before) when they come to a decision. Dangerous times.
That would mean Federal Agencies would be beyond Judicial review. You sure that’s what you want?
Not beyond judicial review, but not under the purview of the SCOTUS. This is the kind of shit that District Courts and US Courts of Appeals are for. SCOTUS is only supposed to determine if the rulings of lower courts, legislation, or presidential actions violate any provisions of the Constitution or existing statutes. They aren’t supposed to legislate from the bench, they aren’t supposed to pass judgment on cases, and they aren’t supposed to meddle in the affairs of the other branches as long as they are coloring inside the lines. Their only purview is the legality of laws and rulings. Nothing more. As much as I was happy for the Roe v. Wade ruling, it was supposed to be kicked back to the legislature to form appropriate laws surrounding the matter, not to rest the legality on the president that was set. This is fundamentally judicial overreach, as is about 90% of everything they have done this last couple years.
Not beyond judicial review, but not under the purview of the SCOTUS.
They aren’t under the purview of SCOTUS. The lower courts are.
Their only purview is the legality of laws and rulings.
That’s exactly what they’re doing here. A lower court ruled that the FDA didn’t follow it’s own process when relaxing restrictions around the prescribing and dispensing of mifepristone. The loser appealed and the next highest court ruled that the FDA did follow its own process. Repeat appeals until you reach SCOTUS who is now ruling on which of the lower courts is correct. That’s it.
SCOTUS is NOT ruling on whether mifepristone is legal or approved for use, it’s ruling on whether a lower court followed the law when reaching its decision and whether or not that decision is consistent with the Constitution. In practical terms whichever way SCOTUS rules it’s those lower courts whose authority will be used to direct (or not) whatever the FDA does next.
This is fundamentally judicial overreach, as is about 90% of everything they have done this last couple years.
You see so much as “Judicial Overreach” for two reasons:
- You don’t understand the process.
- So much of what gets to court, including SCOTUS, these days are questions of Administrative Law because much of this country is being run by Administrative Law. Which is what this case is about.
Most of what is decried as “Judicial Overreach” should more correctly be called AGENCY Overreach but its being blamed on the Judiciary.
Like this case. The problem isn’t SCOTUS it’s the agency known as the FDA.
I guess it wasn’t about states rights, guys.
CSA states’ declarations of secession, if I remember correctly, used the word “slaveholding” rather often to characterize CSA’s members.
There are some other differences in direction, so back then it really was to some extent about states’ rights, just as important as slavery or maybe a bit less. Which doesn’t change the point.
(Also - I was a stupid kid at some point with sympathies to confederates. Eh.)
Like conservatives today, most of the men who fought and died for the Confederate states, were not a part of the ruling class they supported. They heard what they wanted to hear. They were convinced that the federal government was trying to take away their rights. They gave their own lives so a few rich men might continue to live by rich fucker rules. Men who owned other men. Men who didn’t give a damn about the common folk they sent to fight. It’s only ever been about the rights of the Few, the landowning slavers.
Lol. They’ve only ever used “states rights” like “small gubberment”; as a means to impose their will on the largest scale they currently hold power. As soon as they gain the upper hand and can impose their will via a higher government (or regulator) — such as imposing their will on local governments via state law, or imposing their will on states via federal law (or the EPA) — they don’t give it a second thought.
This is how fascists and authoritarians operate. They lie, because words mean nothing to them but a means to achieve authoritarian rule… They don’t stop at the national level either.
Why even have regulating bodies? Chevron deference cannot go away. This is how the right continues to “dismantle the administrative state,” to use their own words.
This is real bad.
Chevron deference is problematic because it allows non elected officials to establish rules, in practice laws, with insufficient oversight.
Don’t get me wrong I like when the FDA limits how much rat poop can be in ceral. But it shouldn’t enable organizations to say something that had previously been known as lawful is now a felony, and to imprison citizens for that.
Chevron deference should be limited to fines on commercial businesses.
Stfu. Honestly do you have like a baby’s understanding of government regulation? Do you think keeping the rat poop out of cereal and the other ten million regulations that keep you safe daily are possible without specialized bodies of administrative agencies regulating thousands of different industries, administering tens of thousands of specialty statutes? You cannot draw a line between “making things illegal that used to be perfectly legal” and keeping the rat poop out of food. Rat poop food was “perfectly legal” and still would be without a Chevron deference, we’d be sitting around waiting for Congress to act and meanwhile we’d all die of plague. What are you, a Libertarian, wants to die from plague?
Re read what I said. My point is that Chevron is inappropriate when applied in criminal matters, as opposed to civil matters.
These corporations bake those fines into “the cost of doing business.” Fines aren’t effective on their own. Also, we need experts to be the ones who determine where the line is, before we can even talk about consequences for crossing it.
This country would descend into chaos within days if we didn’t have people who are career experts in their respective fields working in regulatory agencies.
No fucking shot should those people need to be elected, that’s absurd. We need people who have studied that shit and have an intimate knowledge of the subject matter informing our laws, not Joe Shmo that won a popularity contest because “he’s the kind of guy they’d like to have a beer with.” Even if they have the best intentions, it’s impossible to be an expert in everything.
Also, the heads of those agencies are politically appointed positions, and at least on a state level, they often turnover with each new administration. So it’s not completely disconnected from people who are elected.
Edit: dumb fuck libertarians ruining this country.
The issue is that these agencies can have their heads appointed as a way of politically weaponizing them.
For example appointing a new FBI head who would lead to a new ruling that unborn fetuses are people who would be protected by homicide laws.
This skirts the legislative process to establish new laws. And aside from waiting until the next election the only recourse is commenting on the mater during a comment period.
The Supreme Court, NOT medical professionals, will get to decide what life saving medications YOU get to take! It’s a good thing they aren’t corrupt and we’re appointed on merit without lying!
now in fairness, it’s because these people who are not at all trained in medicine or experimental design think that the people whose training and careers are exclusively in medicine and experimental design may have done it wrong.
part of the republican strategy for getting their wildly unpopular agenda through nationwide has been making sure that anyone anywhere is allowed to make a legally-enforcable decision IF they agree with it, but ensuring that no amount of expertise or personal stake qualifies you to make the opposite decision. Multiple doctors agree that your pregnancy is non-viable? Doesn’t matter, a city councilperson whose highest education is a GED has decided that doesn’t qualify you for an exception to their abortion laws. The opinion of several doctors, the patient and the patient’s parents is that the patient is trans? Not good enough, a complete stranger who knows neither you or anything that they’re talking about said “no”. You want books in your kids’ school library? Only if they’re approved by the Karenest Karen to ever Karen. It’s designed to be a ratchet effect. Anyone can turn the dial to the right, no one can turn it back to the left, they call it “freedom” and the absolute monsters they’re appealing to love it because the only freedoms they care about are the freedom to do what they want and the freedom to force everyone else to do what they want.
