Thurs: Judges Play Doctor --- With Their Robes On.

Judges Play Doctor --- With Their Robes On.

A three-judge panel on a federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday to lift a ban on the abortion pill mifepristone, but reinstated outdated and medically unnecessary restrictions on its use and access. It would limit the use of the drug to the seventh week of pregnancy and bar it from being distributed by mail.

That’s a partial stay of the district court ruling from extremist judge Matthew Kacsmaryk that would have reversed the Food and Drug Administration’s 20-year-old approval of the drug. The panel of two Trump judges and one George W. Bush appointee made clear that they were only reversing Kacsmaryk on a technicality. “At this preliminary stage, and based on our necessarily abbreviated review, it appears that the statute of limitations bars plaintiffs’ challenges to the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone in 2000.”

Then they played doctor and overruled the FDA, imposing their own restrictions on the drug. In 2016, the FDA allowed for the drug to be used up to 10 weeks gestation and for it to be prescribed by some providers other than doctors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA temporarily allowed the drug to be available by mail, then made that permanent this year.

RELATED STORY: Trump-appointed judge blocks sale of safe and effective abortion drug

The judges agreed with Kacsmayk that the 1873 Comstock Act, an “anti-vice” law that has been dormant since the Supreme Court’s Griswold decision in the 1960s, applied here. That 19th-century law prohibited the distribution of contraceptives, “lewd” writings, and any “instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used in an abortion.

“To the extent the Comstock Act introduces uncertainty into the ultimate merits of the case, that uncertainty favors the plaintiffs,” the court said, writing that “merely by knowingly making use of the mail for a prohibited abortion item” violates the outdated law.

An 18th-century law thus overrides the 21st-century determinations of the FDA. The appeals court’s application of this law is also flawed in imposing the ban on states where abortion is legal. As the Department of Justice argued in a recent memo, the act prohibits mailing the pills only if the sender knows they would be used for an illegal abortion, not a legal one in states where abortion is legal.

The judges made very clear that they are with forced birth extremist Kacsmaryk and the anti-abortion plaintiffs, echoing the totally unscientific language of abortion opponents in calling medication abortion “chemical abortion” and referring to an embryo as “an unborn child.” The judges agreed with the plaintiffs' assertion that the drug is unsafe, causing “cramping, heavy bleeding and severe pain,” and said that the FDA “cannot deny that serious complications from mifepristone” are possible, raising the question of whether they know what happens in pregnancy and childbirth.

They also took issue with the FDA’s argument that they drug is comparable in safety to ibuprofen. “FDA’s own documents show that mifepristone bears no resemblance to ibuprofen,” the court said, which was not the point the FDA made in that comparison. Because no one would take ibuprofen for an abortion or mifepristone for a headache.

The judges also swept aside the Department of Justice's argument on whether the plaintiffs had any business bringing the suit in the first place by lying about it. They said that “as a result of FDA’s failure to regulate this potent drug, these doctors have had to devote significant time and resources to caring for women experiencing mifepristone’s harmful effects. This harm is sufficiently concrete.” They added that the plaintiffs “also face an injury from the irreconcilable choice between performing their jobs and abiding by their consciences.”

But the doctors bringing the suit, the DOJ pointed out, didn’t prescribe the drug and were arguing that the harm was that they might someday be faced with treating a patient having dangerous side effects from it. The DOJ argued in their brief to the appellate court that that’s pure speculation “that other doctors will prescribe mifepristone; that those doctors’ patients will experience exceedingly rare serious adverse events; that those patients will then seek out plaintiffs—doctors who oppose mifepristone and abortion—for care; and that they will do so in sufficient numbers to burden plaintiffs’ medical practice.”

Which, by the way, is a doctor’s job. To treat patients no matter what causes their symptoms.

Where the Rains Are, Flooding Waits for Me.

In Fort Lauderdale, FL, 22-25 inches of heavy rainfall poured over the city, most of which fell in less than seven hours. Flash flooding closed the airport and railways, leaving cars stranded on city streets.

Florida is highly vulnerable to global heating. The words climate change are still banned in Florida after Rick Scott implemented the policy for government workers. DeSantis has not made a statement I can find; he must be too busy making the lives of women, brown, and gay people as miserable as possible.

Keep in mind that April falls within the dry season in Florida. The rainy season begins in mid-to-late May.

Fox Noise is Accused of Lying About Dominion.  Their Response is to Lie About Everything to the Court.

The judge in the Dominion v. Fox News case just imposed sanctions on Fox and it could get worse. Dominion played for the judge very relevant recordings that Fox should have turned over to Dominion during discovery. The recordings include conversations between Fox employees and Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, discussing how the allegations against Dominion were bogus.

So how did Dominion get the recordings? Not from Fox. Dominion got the recordings from Abby Grossberg, the former Fox News producer who is suing Fox claiming that Fox’s attorneys told her to lie in her prior deposition testimony, essentially to get her to take the fall.

Particularly with the trial supposed to start next week, the judge is understandably pissed. His sanctions include that if things are delayed, if Dominion must conduct more depositions, or redo prior depositions, that Fox will pay for it all.

Dominion’s attorneys also revealed to the judge that Rupert Murdoch was an officer of Fox News, holding the title of executive chair according to SEC filings. Yet Fox repeatedly represented to the court, and in discovery, that Murdoch was not an officer with Fox News.

Fox’s attorneys, already accused by Grossberg of suborning perjury, have another potential problem. The judge also indicated may appoint a special master to investigate Fox’s failure to timely produce this discovery itself. This strongly suggests the judge smells something fishy and that Fox’s attorneys could be under investigation for illegal or unethical acts.

It's Not Nice to Fool Judge Davis

Good Luck Getting Unanamous Constent from the QOP.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to temporarily replace her on the powerful Judiciary Committee on Wednesday as she recovers from shingles.

“Unfortunately, my return to Washington has been delayed due to continued complications related to my diagnosis,” the senator said in a statement. “I understand that my absence could delay the important work of the Judiciary Committee, so I’ve asked Leader Schumer to ask the Senate to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve until I’m able to resume my committee work.”

A spokesperson for Schumer said he would ask the chamber to do so next week. Democratic aides say the majority leader could make a unanimous consent request on the floor to allow for the temporary replacement.

The Vultures Lawyers Must Already Be Circling

As a fire at an Indiana plastics recycling plant is expected to keep pumping potentially hazardous smoke, soot and ash into the surrounding community for several more days, local officials say they have been concerned about a possible blaze at the facility for years.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is conducting around-the-clock air quality monitoring due to concerns that the fire, burning since Tuesday afternoon, may be releasing debris contaminated with asbestos and toxic chemicals from the incinerated plastics.