Today, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an interim order pausing a Friday decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that would have banned telehealth abortions. This Supreme Court action, called an administrative stay, will allow for telehealth abortions to temporarily continue. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court justices will review emergency appeals by manufacturers of mifepristone, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro — plaintiffs in the ongoing litigation.
The administrative stay is provisional and, in itself, gives no indication about how the Supreme Court might proceed or rule on the merits of the case. Alito acted because he is the Supreme Court Justice assigned to handle emergency applications from cases decided by the Fifth Circuit. Alito requested that both parties file briefs by this Thursday. The administrative stay is set to expire on May 11. At that time, the court would be expected to either extend the interim stay or issue a formal decision.
It is possible that the Supreme Court might simply uphold the Fifth Circuit’s decision and let a ban on telehealth abortions take effect as of May 11. However, as I pointed out in my post this morning, there are multiple legal challenges in various federal courts to the FDA’s current rules regarding telehealth abortions. At some point, the U.S. Supreme Court will almost certainly grant certiorari to one of these cases.