FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

Well, for decades, organizations relied on a nineteen eighty-two case, Havens Realty, to argue that a drain on resources caused by the defendant's actions established standing.

But the Supreme Court aggressively shut down that expansive reading recently in the FDA versus Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case.

Unanimously, right?

Yes, unanimously.

Exactly.

And there was both a 2024 Supreme Court decision involving another challenge to Mifepristone filed by a group of anti-abortion doctors called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

And then there was an order, a shadow docket order issued by the Supreme Court last year.

So one question was whether the standing arguments made by Louisiana were pretty much an exact match for standing arguments the court had already rejected in that 2024 case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

Another question was, given that the Supreme Court had frozen in place access to mifepristone in response to a request by the drugs manufacturer, Danko, last spring, did the Fifth Circuit actually have the ability to ignore that and still give Louisiana access an order immediately blocking access to bivouacristone.

So there's two different questions.

And has a court

ever second guessed the FDA's approval of a drug? Judges have not second guessed the approval of other drugs.

So there are actually two things that the panel discussed.

There was both a 2024 Supreme Court decision that involving another challenge to Mifepristone filed by a group of anti-abortion doctors called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

And then there was an order, a shadow docket order issued by the Supreme Court last year.

So one question was whether the standing arguments made by Louisiana were pretty much an exact match for standing arguments the court had already rejected in that 2024 case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

Another question was, given that the Supreme Court had frozen in place access to mifepristone in response to a request by the drugs manufacturer Danko last spring, did the Fifth Circuit actually have the ability to ignore that and still give Louisiana access? an order immediately blocking access to Bifepristone.

So there's two different questions.

Has a court ever second-guessed the FDA's approval of drugs?

Judges had not second-guessed the approval of other drugs.

I-In their defense, though, I mean, they are right that this can go too far.

So in, uh, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the case where the, uh, conservative doctors were trying to stop the issuance of mifepristone, one of the arguments for standing made explicitly below by Judge Ho was, "This is just aesthetic standing.

They like babies.

They wanna see babies, and the babies are gonna die, and that's just like crocodiles.