A Basis for Democratic Dominance In Both the Senate & White House, Has Been Laid By Republicans Them

For several decades, Republicans have focused on appointing "conservatives" to the federal Bench. Now that their efforts are finally coming to fruition, this should be used by Democratic campaigns, going forward, as one if their primary selling points. The case which occasions my OP, is the conservative 5th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, issuing its ruling on the earlier ruling by Amarillo, Texas's judge, Kacsmaryk, that mifepristone should have its FDA authorization revoked.


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The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled that access to the abortion pill, mifepristone, should be sharply curtailed, ramping up the legal threat to the most popular method of ending a pregnancy.

The decision — if allowed by the Supreme Court to take effect — would roll back actions the federal government has taken since 2016 to make the pills more accessible, including rules allowing online ordering, mail delivery, and pharmacy dispensing of the drugs. It also would roll back access from the current 10 weeks of pregnancy to seven and would reimpose a requirement that only physicians can prescribe the pills.

Despite the appellate court’s ruling, there will be no change in how the pills are distributed until the Supreme Court revisits the issue, likely in 2024 or 2025. But with bans in force in many states, the current patchwork of availability will continue.
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https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/16/abortion-pill-restrictions-00111499#:~:text=The 5th U.S. Circuit Court,method of ending a pregnancy.



There will be no immediate change, on the federal level, because these decisions fall under a stay of any action, until the case is heard by the U.S. Supreme Court (by the way, it would be completely inexcusable for the Court to put off hearing this case, until 2025). But now that we have not just one loose cannon, of a Trump appointed, MAGA judge, taking a wacko view, but a 3 judge panel of Appeals Court judges, largely concurring with that view, which would return the abortion pill to its 2016 status, before federal steps, to make it easier to access, thereby ruling that it should be more difficult to obtain-- one must begin to wonder how the currently conservative SCOTUS, will rule.

The three judge Appeals panel ended up ruling that the statute of limitations for challenging the FDA's 2000 approval of mifepristone, has likely run out. However, that did not stop them from ruling in favor of tighter regulation. So, have we accepted the idea of conservative judges, now being in charge of decisions regarding the regulation of drugs?


Seeing what a great effect these judges' decisions are having on our lives, so that it is no longer just an academic, theoretical argument that Dems would be making, I hope will inspire them to make this a prominent part of their election arguments, for both Presidential, as well as in Senatorial, campaigns.

 

I would have likely agreed with this post on how to take the Supreme Court. The liberal base once had all the women’s rights issues in a corner. However that changed. With transgenderism coming from the left it is pushing some women out of that corner. This will have a steamrolling effect as well. It’s far from showing it’s full face.

 

Do you want Congress to repeal APA? The portions stayed are in violation of the act.

'At this preliminary stage, the Medical Organizations and Doctors have made a substantial showing that the 2016 Amendments and the 2021 Non-Enforcement Decision violate the APA. Accordingly, those actions will be stayed pending final judgment.'

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca5.213145/gov.uscourts.ca5.213145.543.1_1.pdf

 

Here is an additional, interesting element to consider, pointing toward the destination, at which we will ultimately arrive, if this Conservative seeding of the Judiciary, is not frozen in its tracks, ASAP. One of the three judges, wrote a partial dissent, because he thought that they should have gone much farther. He saw the ER doctors who brought this case, as still having stranding, w/out any statute of limitations problems. And this judge, James Ho, reasoned that essentially any abortion was illegal because the sight of a newborn was a something which gave doctors pleasure and that the mother of any fetus, does not have the right to take that joy away from medical personnel. I sheeit you not.

<Google Snip>
In an opinion dissenting in part from the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit's decision to keep mifepristone on the market but with tighter restrictions, Ho argued doctors suffer an “aesthetic injury” when their “unborn patients” are aborted.9 hours ago
https://news.bloomberglaw.com › ju...
Ho Cites Doctor 'Aesthetic' Injuries in Abortion Pill Case (1)

 

Though seeing the incredible stretch of one of these judges, to rate the doctors' right to see live babies, ahead of the mother's right to forego pregnancy, is elucidating, in what it foreshadows-- that has not been what I'd meant, when I called this part of the story, about Judge James Ho, "interesting." There is yet another dimension to this story, and it involves some familiar characters.

First, let me mention that two of the three Appeals Court judges, including Ho, had been appointed by Trump. Now, let us look at Ho's swearing-in ceremony:





We will all recognize Justice Thomas as officiating. Senator Ted Cruz, on the far left, is also easy to spot. But the character here who is most notable, is not shown in the photo-- yet it is in his library, where the ceremony is taking place. Any guesses, as to whose library was used, for the swearing in of this Appeals judge, for his lifetime appointment?

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We regret to inform you that the nonsense abortion pill lawsuit is not only still active, but will be heard next on May 17 by a very unfortunate group of judges—including James Ho, who has connections to both Justice Clarence Thomas and his Republican megadonor benefactor, Harlan Crow.
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This photo came from a prognosticating story, about the Appeals ruling we've just received, written back in the summer of 2022.

<Snip>

Ho is the Federalist Society/MAGA darling of Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals who’s written very aggressive opinions, including one from 2019 in which he said that “abortion is the immoral, tragic, and violent taking of innocent human life.” Former President Donald Trump nominated the Texas judge to the appeals court in 2017, and Ho was sworn in in January 2018 by Justice Thomas himself—in Crow’s private library.

ProPublica reporter Justin Elliott resurfaced the photo of the ceremony the day the outlet uncovered Crow’s financing of luxury travel for Thomas, including many private jet trips. He tweeted: “A detail from our story today: Ted Cruz tweeted this photo of Clarence Thomas swearing in 5th Circuit Judge James Ho. Turns out this is in billionaire Harlan Crow’s private library, and flight records show Crow’s jet dispatched to DC and back to Dallas before + after this event.”

It appears that Thomas—and maybe Cruz—took Crow’s jet to this little swearing-in.


The other two judges on the panel are Trump appointee Cory Wilson, who voted for a six-week abortion ban as a Mississippi state lawmaker, and George W. Bush nominee Jennifer Elrod, who said Obamacare was a “fraud on the American people.” (They’re terrible on other issues, too: Elrod wrote the opinion striking down a federal ban on bump stocks, which make it easier to fire semiautomatic rifles, while Wilson wrote the ruling striking down the law banning people with domestic violence restraining orders from owning guns.)

So, yes, this case is very likely making its way back to the scandal-ridden Supreme Court, after the high court temporarily blocked restrictions on the medication from going into effect as the case proceeds. Given this horrific three-judge panel, it seems all but assured that the Fifth Circuit will write an awful ruling, and the FDA will have to appeal it to SCOTUS. At this point, we basically have to hope against all odds that the court will be scared enough about growing calls for court expansion to smack the nonsense case away.
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https://jezebel.com/judge-set-to-hear-abortion-pill-case-was-sworn-in-at-bi-1850416283

 

I remember some smug arrogant bastard telling Americans that elections have consequences.... It turns out he was right.

 

Which is the point of my OP, which I will recap in brief, for you, in case you missed it: Americans, in the main, do not like the "consequences," we are now seeing, after having allowed Republicans to load up the Judiciary with these judges who have, relative to most of the electorate, extremist views. Therefore, Dems running for Senate-- which has the power of confirming Court appointees-- and for President (who, of course, nominates judges), should lean into pointing out, that this is what people will get more of, if they continue to vote Republicans into either of these positions.