I’m pleased to pass along that I have filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (the think tank that employs me) concerning the FDA’s emergency motion for a stay pending appeal of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling last Friday against the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. The amicus brief, which is essentially the same as the one that I filed in Judge Kacsmaryk’s court, explains that Judge Kacsmaryk correctly interpreted the federal criminal statutes (the so-called Comstock Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1461, 1462) that prohibit sending abortion drugs by U.S. mail or by common carrier and rebuts the recent opinion by DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel on which the FDA relies.
I have not studied with care the other legal issues that the FDA’s emergency motion presents. But for all the abuse that has been heaped on Judge Kacsmaryk, I am confident that his treatment of this issue is much sounder than the criticisms that have been leveled against it.