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shadow docket

Supreme Court "Shadow Docket" Order Preserves Mifepristone Via Telemedicine--For Now

The Court stayed a lower court order that would have blocked FDA rules allowing the prescription of mifepristone to terminate pregnancies via telemedicine.

Jonathan H. Adler | 5.15.2026 9:07 AM

Yesterday evening, as expected, the Supreme Court granted mifepristone manufacturers' requests for a stay of an order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit blocking a 2023 Food and Drug Administration regulation allowing doctors to prescribe mifepristone as an abortifacient via telemedicine. The order was issued shortly after the expiration of an administrative stay entered, and then extended, by Justice Alito. Justices Thomas and Alito each dissented. There are no other recorded votes.

As is common in such situations, the order in Danco Laboratories v. Louisiana stays that of the lower court pending the disposition of the appeal and any subsequent petition for certiorari. This means the case will find its way back to the Court, perhaps even later next term.

The order was unsurprising because, as I noted here, the Fifth Circuit's order blocked the implementation of a federal regulation on questionable grounds. Louisiana's suit is based upon an aggressive and somewhat speculative theory of standing and the Fifth Circuit's order relies upon faulty reasoning from a prior, since-vacated, opinion from........

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