and Kacsmaryk’s unprecedented order in April that suspended the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a commonly used abortion medication.
Before the Supreme Court’s order, a different 5th Circuit panel, with two different Trump appointees in the majority, narrowed Kacsmaryk’s ruling. But without that Supreme Court intervention, the previous panel’s narrowed ruling still would have imposed hurdles to abortion access, including blocking patients from receiving mifepristone by mail.
While the Supreme Court could have the last word, there’s every reason to think that, in the meantime, this latest panel of GOP-appointed judges will do everything it can to carry the torch of the Dobbs court and the broader anti-abortion movement that created it.