Political Wire: “A federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary ruling invalidating the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, an unprecedented order that — if it stands through court challenges — could make it harder for patients to get abortions in states where abortion is legal, not just in those trying to restrict it,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The drug will continue to be available at least in the short-term because the judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, stayed his own order for seven days to give the F.D.A. time to ask an appeals court to intervene.”
NY Times: “The case has put a spotlight on Judge Kacsmaryk, 45, a Trump appointee whose conservative views have prompted accusations that anti-abortion groups judge-shopped to find a sympathetic jurist to limit access to medication abortion — allegations that lawyers for the plaintiffs have denied. The focus only intensified after the judge, in a highly unusual move, asked lawyers in the case not to publicize a hearing. He cited death threats, harassing calls and concerns of a “circuslike atmosphere.”
Judge Kacsmaryk rose to the federal bench after years litigating at a conservative religious freedom firm, First Liberty Institute. Democrats opposed his 2019 confirmation based on his history of opposing L.G.B.T.Q. rights. Last fall, he found that the Biden administration’s guidelines for protections for L.G.B.T.Q. workers went too far. He also recently ruled that a federal program aimed at giving teenagers access to confidential contraception violated the U.S. Constitution and state law.
Activists have demonstrated in front of the federal court building in downtown Amarillo, voicing their fears that this case could prove another devastating blow to women seeking abortions. They worry the judge will bring his personal views to the case, pointing to his previous rulings in other hot-button issues.
“He’s advocating a political perspective from his perch on the bench,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, the executive director of the Women’s March, an advocacy group. She lives in Amarillo and has been helping to organize protests around the case.”
OR Public Broadcasting: “And in a handful of states including Oregon and Washington, a second federal case may have bearing on whether or not mifepristone continues to be available.
In February, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed their own lawsuit against the FDA, alleging the agency had singled out mifepristone for excessive regulation. More than a dozen states with Democratic attorneys general have signed on to that suit, which is being heard in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.
According to the Oregon AG’s office, the judge in that case, Thomas Rice, on Friday granted a motion that enjoins the FDA from “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone” in the states that have filed that lawsuit.
The AG’s office said it is working on a legal analysis of how the two rulings, which happened nearly simultaneously, should be interpreted.”