The applications for stays presented to J USTICE ALITO and by him referred to the Court are granted. The April 7, 2023 order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, case No. 2:22–cv–223, is stayed pending disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought. Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.
Supreme Court of the United Sates of America
I am always more than willing to admit when I am wrong, and here is one such instance, in part. So, it would seem that SCOTUS granted a stay on the lower courts’ orders from taking effect until the case (FDA v. Hippocratic Medicine) makes its way through the appellate system. Of course, all of this is only temporary. This case will undoubtedly come before the Court again in October, in which case the justices will take up the matter on its actual merits. Note that this is an administrative stay — basically a procedural hold while the questions of law are argued. This stay by SCOTUS makes absolutely no verdict on the worthiness of the parties’ arguments. In short, SCOTUS has made no judgment about what they truly believe about the case. However, Thomas and Alito tipped their hand on all abortion rights before this case landed on their plate, and a few others also have but were not willing to say so via this stay order as the two aforementioned did.
As always, with any unexpected move by SCOTUS, I ask, What’s their endgame? I don’t trust anything the six uber-conservative justices do that contradicts their usual mode of taking away people’s rights. Some alternative motive is going on here; I can only speculate, so I will. First, as I mentioned above, the stay says nothing about what the justices actually think about the merits of the case, and I am skeptical of legal pundits who think SCOTUS is signaling to the lower courts that they have no “appetite” for more abortion drama. If that were the situation, the justices could have thrown out the case on the blatant lack of standing, which is the only point of contention legal pundits can agree on. But no! They didn’t, so they welcome this fight to some extent. Second, I think SCOTUS is simply trying to avoid adding more to the heat RepubliKKKlans are facing. Conservative justices are embroiled in corruption and controversy (e.g., Thomas), so they don’t need to pile on by rolling back more women’s rights. Plus, they have time! They have copious amounts of time. They have decades of time as this Court will have an uber-conservative supermajority for the next ten years at least. They’ve got the long game in mind to dismantle our rights and enshrine Christo-fascist laws. Thus, I have no doubt this will be the drip, drip pattern of reversing access to the abortion pill just as they did with Roe and Casey while lulling idiot Americans into a false sense of “nothing to see here” as they slowly roll us back to the 19th Century. Also, recall in a previous post I stated that FDA v. Hippocratic Medicine is a two-for case. It is a chance for the Court to roll back more abortion rights and weaken and dismantle the administrative state, the last pillar of the legal doctrine they hope to shred. Welcome to stupid America!