Justice Clarence Thomas has gotten the attention of late due to questionable ethics. But it’s high time Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. received the scrutiny he deserves. Alito’s dissent in the mifepristone case has served up yet another example of his intemperate, partisan rhetoric.
On Friday, the Supreme Court instituted a stay that could last well over a year (until a final decision from the high court on the merits) in a case brought by forced-birth advocates to ban the safe and effective abortion and miscarriage drug mifepristone. While the action temporarily suspends a preposterous opinion from U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk reversing the Food and Drug Administration’s two-decades-old approval of the drug (at the behest of certain antiabortion doctors and groups), the decision was not unanimous. Alito and Thomas would have allowed the indefensible ruling by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to stand.
