Gorsuch gives anti-abortion advocates a 'bad sign' at hearing

U.S. Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch signaled that he's inclined to overturn a federal judge's ban on the abortion drug mifepristone.

The court heard oral arguments Tuesday on the Food and Drug Administration’s rules for dispensing the mifepristone, which were challenged by the anti-abortion Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, and Gorsuch appeared skeptical that Texas-based federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk had the authority to issue a nationwide ban.

"There are zero universal injunctions issued during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 12 years in office, pretty consequential ones, and over the last four years or so the number is something like 60, and maybe more than that," Gorsuch told Erin Hawley, an attorney for the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. "They're a relatively new thing, and you're asking us to extend and pursue this relatively new remedial course which this court never adopted itself. Lower courts have kind of run with this."

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Legal experts expressed surprise at the conservative Gorsuch's skepticism and saw that as a sign that he would rule against the anti-abortion challenge.

"Neil Gorsuch expresses undisguised contempt for Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk's nationwide ban on mifepristone, condemning it as part of a 'rash' of unlawfully overbroad remedies awarded by unrestrained district courts," said Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern. "Obviously a bad sign for the anti-abortion advocates here."

"Apparently, we've triggered 'anti-universal injunction'-Gorsuch," said Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation. "Never know which power this dude is going to be fixated on destroying but TODAY THE BROKEN CLOCK STOPPED ON THE RIGHT NUMBER."