In the past couple of hours, two district court judges issued rulings on RU-486/medication abortion. One, based in Washington State, told the Food and Drug Administration that it was to maintain the status quo. The other, a district court judge in a single judge sub-division in North Texas who every reactionary crank goes to because he is predictable inclined to favor reactionary plaintiffs, found that the FDA has been out of compliance with the regulatory laws for twenty years and ordered a national injunction pulling this drug from the market. The decision is stayed for a week.
The FDA is being told to do two very contradictory things by the same level of authority.
Baud
Time for an Article III thunderdome.
JPL
@Baud: Time for Roberts to resign in shame. Then we’d see how long Thomas would last under a new Chief Justice
Imagine being a republican and going after Judge Merchan for donating $35.00 to get out the vote. I did not think you had to report donors under 99.00 dollars.
Antonius
9 justices enter, 1 Justice leaves!
JoyceH
Something just dawned on me. Thomas accepting lavish gifts is apparently legal in this crazy old world of ours, and what he did wrong was in not reporting the gifts. Sooooo…. if he was supposed to report the gifts, doesn’t that mean he was also supposed to report the gifts and their monetary value on his income taxes? Hmm.
JPL
The Texas judge released his opinion on Good Friday. How very special.
Jackie
Scout211 posted this earlier:
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/04/1167867948/washington-state-stockpiles-thousands-of-abortion-pills
So proud of Gov Inslee! I hope other Blue State governors quickly follow suit!
JPL
@JoyceH: The repubs would defund the IRS so fast. I truly believe IOKIYR
cain
@Antonius: 3 leave – forget those others!
Frankensteinbeck
What DOES happen in the short term with two contradictory orders?
jnfr
No one can say this was a surprise, though we can clearly say it is incoherent.
Jackie
Scout211 posted this article earlier:
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/04/1167867948/washington-state-stockpiles-thousands-of-abortion-pills
I’m very proud of Gov Inslee! Hopefully other Blue State governors quickly follow suit!
Chief Oshkosh
@Frankensteinbeck: Ultimately? Well, Biden is Commander in Chief. How many divisions does Texass Judge Fucky McFuckface have?
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
The Texas order doesn’t go into effect for another week.
FelonyGovt
I guess it’s now open season on regulatory and judicial decisions that go back 20, even 50 years, that give women some agency over their own bodies.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Personally, I’m sick of having my government run by one unelected tyrannical asshole judge in Amarillo.
Sure Lurkalot
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Sure Lurkalot:
I just finished ranting and raving to Mr DAW about this. I may have said these fucking, interfering, Republican men were begging for people to go after them with guns because they no longer recognize the ballot box. I don’t really mean guns. I don’t want that. But I am so sick of this
ETA: I feel helpless. I told Mr DAW I’m going to stop writing and do politics all the time
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wisconsin gave us hope that our vote counts. The TX judge pretty much said they have standing just cuz.
japa21
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Mrs. Japa, who considers herself pro-life in the true meaning of the term, is furious. The car that these GOP dogs caught is going to grind them under its tires.
bbleh
@Frankensteinbeck: @Baud: I’m still having trouble believing the ruling won’t be stayed pending appeal, 5CA or no. This is what emergency stays are made for AFAIK.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Wife and I did buy up a bunch of Plan B boxes that we’ll be happy to distribute to the friends of our daughters free of charge (for when the Texas douchebag strikes those too). We also had them go buy some as well.
Between that and my personal armory, I don’t know what else to do.
Suzanne
I love being a vessel for birthing the state’s future laborers.
Sanjeevs
@JoyceH: I think US law is the donor is responsible for the tax.
in most countries it’s the recipient
Argiope
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: plan B works fine for people in smaller bodies. For people in larger ones, not so much. But! Tell them about plancpills.org and aidaccess.org. Spread the word that the pills are still available no matter what Judge Matt K says.
Sure Lurkalot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @japa21:
Sound and fury! Let’s turn up the volume all the way until their fucking ears explode.
They will not stop until their view of what a woman’s place is, who a person is, is enshrined in the constitution and protected by a carceral state. They will not stop unless stopped.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Argiope: Done.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Could the FDA ignore an adverse SCOTUS ruling on this and tell them to pound sand?
Argiope
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: great! I have some nifty plan c pills stickers from the website. They end up in public restrooms all the time when I travel. Funny, that…
EarthWindFire
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I doubt they’d try unless Biden backed them up by going full Andy Jackson try to enforce it.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
What does “pound sand” look like to you?
The FDA gave approval to something. The FDA doesn’t actually distribute the drug.
Argiope
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Not exactly. I do think they can slow walk enforcement, though. And removal of approval doesn’t mean a drug becomes illegal to possess. Only Schedule 1 drugs are illegal.
Edmund dantes
@Sanjeevs: question is did Crow note it on his taxes as gifts. As several of them definitely were over the reporting gift limit. And has he done it on all his gifts and used up all his 14 million lifetime limit.
Edmund dantes
I’ve always wondered if someone at the IRS sat down and just ran the numbers on the ultra rich to see how many times they used up their limits doing all their different gifts to trusts, children, and other tax dodges.
PaulB
Nope. The donor is required to report the gift and pay the taxes on it. Weird, I know, but that’s the way it is. I had to look this up for personal reasons.
Kay
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
You can donate to these people. They’re actually getting women out of these states and to health care. I have personal experience with them and can vouch for them. They go into smaller airports so their reach is really amazing _ I had no idea there were so many airports in the US.
If you give locally to a pro choice group you are probably funding transport – no one talks about it because theres too much risk for the volunteers doing the transporting but it’s happening. It’s small groups of women. Really no nonsense. They just get it done.
Baud
@Kay:
I’m not surprised to hear of these efforts. The fact that there haven’t been even more horror stories than there have been told me a lot of people were working on helping folks.
Brachiator
@JoyceH:
Generally, gifts received are not taxable or reportable. Oddly enough, a bribe would be taxable income.
RaflW
This is the moment when Democrats need to go flat out, full press demanding that Thomas resign. He’s corrupt as f**k. Any ruling from this court is nearing illegitimacy. Make his continued presence on the court a BFD.
Not that he’ll bend to pressure. But because I think this incredibly radical court will just wildly overplay their hand and strike down RU486 access 6-3 (Roberts playing the game and it passing 5-4 is possible but does nothing to retain legitimacy). And the Dems – as well as many, many outside groups – need to emphasize that a corrupt and unanswerable court is making these bonkers decisions.
Yes, we have to attack the court’s right to rule over us. Things have gotten so bad that the only way out is thru, and that will mean a significant re-set after the Roberts court is disgraced.
Baud
DOJ has appealed the Texas ruling.
RaflW
@Sure Lurkalot & @Dorothy A. Winsor: I said a related thing about young people in Tennessee last night. A group of people having their votes, voices and representatives attacked, repressed and tossed out may stop believing in the system. At that point, violence is one understandable, if depressing and risky, response.
delphinium
@Kay: Thanks for highlighting this group, will send some $ their way.
Kay
@Baud:
It’s rough. They’re all really scared. It just fucking kills me when young women are scared.
I overcompensate with embarrassing midwestern-mom heartiness, like we’re going to a swim meet. Gah. Just horrible.
HumboldtBlue
@FelonyGovt:
Black folks too. Gays as well and their latest fetish, transgender folks too.
Lawyers, when does nullification kick in? How does this asshole think he’s going to enforce his order?
Glidwrith
@HumboldtBlue: He doesn’t need to when corporations like Walgreens eagerly rush in to obey.
tobie
Justice at the ballot box…it’s our only chance. I’m so angry.
RaflW
@Sanjeevs: This is an interesting question. Has Mr Crow filed gift-tax returns? The annual freebie exclusion per person has ranged from $11K in 2004 (an early year of the Thomas’ jetting around the world and luxury yachting) to $17K recently.
Just the Gulfstream flights to/from Asia that was mentioned would cost more than that per person!
Generally, the gift giver doesn’t pay tax, but rather uses part of one’s lifetime exemption for the value above the annual exemption. The lifetime exemption is up to $12,000,000.
So Crow likely didn’t miss paying any gift tax. But has he reported any of this using up of the exemption? That’s the sort of thing the GOP wants to keep the IRS from enforcing by cancelling the hiring of many new employees funded this year.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Kay:
Thank you! I’ll be stroking a check to them, and passed that reference along to my daughters – and they have a ton of friends.
Betty Cracker
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Same!
Baud
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
@Betty Cracker:
I know this is small potatoes in the scheme of things, but they should pass a law that limits the ability to forum shop when filing suits against the government. Make the whose selected to hear the case a random judge from anywhere in the circuit or something.
Kay
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Oh, yay. They don’t need volunteers who aren’t pilots, they have enough of those, but they always need pilots. I suppose you could pay pilots at some point but the volunteer effort is very nice and inspiring, all that.
delphinium
@Baud: Yes, would seem that this should have already been the case, but since it isn’t, it should become a law post-haste.
Timill
@Baud: No: they should ensure that all districts have at least 5 judges by appointing new ones in this Congress to fill the vacancies.
Baud
@Timill:
Hmm. That sounds like a better plan, but I’m concerned we might need a lot more Supreme Court justices to supervise them.
Kay
He’s so good. I remember my oldest son was living in Chicago for that primary and he voted for Pritzker’s opponent (Kennedy?) because Pritzker was “too flashy”. LOL.
Scout211
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Kay:
Sounds like Pritzker is willing to defy the Texas autocrat.
On one hand, this is great – on the other, it is sad in that it is a perfect illustration of how Mitch McConnell and Leonard Leo broke the judiciary.
Quinerly
Stumbled on this site tonight. Worth bookmarking.
https://jessica.substack.com/p/abortion-every-day-4723#details
Timill
@Baud: Life is hard; one has to take the rough with the smooth…
RaflW
I just remembered the punk-rap band Consolidated did a song about Ru-486. The song was released in 1994, which got me curious. It turns out the drug (aka mifepristone) became available in France in 1989 and the UK in 1991.
So while of course the US courts won’t give a toss about European approvals, the idea that this drug is unsafe after 34 years of use is absurd.
HumboldtBlue
@Glidwrith:
True, true.
Kay
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
They’re all going to be too scared to provide it. It’s what’s happened with the abortion “exceptions” for life/health of the mother. They don’t exist as a practical matter because providers are all terrified. There are no exceptions. It’s another fucking lie told to women and they don’t find out it’s a lie until they’re bleeding/infected for three days waiting for a D & C. I keep waiting for one of our not-so-bright reporters to go and look for an “exception” that was granted to one of these abortion bans. They won’t find one because the “exceptions” are wholly illusory.
mvr
I think that the Washington ruling is as significant as the Texas ruling. The two rulings conflict, and I have read that even without a conflict the FDA would have some latitude about how to respond to their approval being revoked. I guess, having heard about the TX case for weeks and knowing that that guy is just a loon, the combined news strikes me as good news. I’ll bet that the Washington ruling is on firmer legal footing.
We know how Thomas and Alito will vote. But I don’t think we can predict the rest as easily if only because they can see the political upshot of this as well as the rest of us.
Doesn’t mean that I’m not still pissed, but I have been pissed since they put the case before that judge.
Ksmiami
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): yes. And it’s high time we ignore these extremist fucks. Or we can just start other remedies. Sorry not sorry. They want a war, time to give it to them.
H.E.Wolf
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Kay:
Oh, granted – it won’t be available on a retail level and stocks in places that bought up a bunch will dwindle quickly.
mvr
DOJ has apparently already filed an appeal:
HumboldtBlue
@H.E.Wolf:
That’s the impossible part.
Kay
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
It’s pretty terrifying. Imagine if the far Right just starts knocking out prescription medications to meet their social/policy/religious goals for women. It wouldn’t just be medications either- they could announce a tubal ligation was “too dangerous” for women and ban them. It’s exactly the same thing.
The Biden DOJ had better appeal. This could get really scary really fast.
Quinerly
I’m trying to get up to speed. This Slate piece is concise, straightforward.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/matthew-kacsmaryk-mifepristone-medication-abortion-supreme-court.html
Ksmiami
@H.E.Wolf: yeah but there’s no course here other than smashing the Right wing from top to bottom. Either they are defeated or America is.
Darkrose
@Baud:
That’s something I’m wondering about. The judge shopping is blatantly tipping the scales, and there’s got to be a way to stop that.
Kay
Biden’s statement is good politics:
I think the “any and every prescription medication at risk” is a smart approach. Unfortunate, but true. If he can broaden it beyond women it will get more media coverage and be better politically.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: There are well-known historical remedies for getting rid of oppressive kings, when democratic action doesn’t apply. I don’t think Republicans really want to be subject to them. But I’m not sure they’ve thought it through; they just assume their opposition will roll over.
NaijaGal
@Kay: I like this approach (pointing out that the judge is practicing medicine/playing pharmacist from the bench with zero qualifications and that it’s a threat to all drugs) because the first thing that came to my mind was what medical or pharmaceutical experience does this judge have to overrule the FDA and 22 years worth of actual real world safety data?
Thanks for the info on Elevated Access.
Kay
@NaijaGal:
I haven’t read the opinion yet, but apparently it rests partly on “fetal personhood” which would be the legal grounding to outlawing abortion nationally – it’s a simple idea- declare any fertilized egg a person, thus any abortion (and some birth control) is murder.
Hence this by Biden:
That’s not hyperbole. It is the necessary step to a national ban, which would not come out of congress in this scenario but instead out of SCOTUS. A court would outlaw all abortion and some birth control nationwide.
RaflW
@Kay: “It is the next big step toward the national ban on abortion that Republican elected officials have vowed to make law in America” is also an important message.
Big RW mouthpieces like the WSJ had a freakout this week after Protasiewicz’s WI win that the GOP had ‘miscalibrated’ on abortion. Ol’ Joe isn’t going to let Republicans walk back this one. Good!
Kay
@RaflW:
They’ll scream bloody murder denying it, but Joe is exactly correct. This decision prepares the ground for a nationwide ban – a judicial ban.
Expect the same people who lectured us that they’d “never” overturn Roe to tell us they’ll “never” put in a national ban. Of course they will. They never had the slightest intention of leaving it up to states. The moment the Texas ban went in they started work on banning medication abortions nationwide. That’s half of abortions.
Ohio Mom
I can’t help but imagine that right now, hearing that a court has declared one drug outlawed, that Big Pharmacy attorneys are racking their brains, trying to come up with angles they could use to get courts to outlaw at least some of pesky expensive drugs they hate paying for.
MomSense
Ah fuck.