Mifepristone Musings

This morning’s Supreme Court arguments in the mifepristone cases (which will be available here when ready) lead to a couple of observations about legal issues of the day:

1. Standing. As the Washington Post effectively summarized: “A majority of justices from across the ideological spectrum expressed skepticism that the antiabortion doctors challenging the government’s loosening of regulations have sufficient legal grounds — or standing — to bring the lawsuit.” (Last year, I wrote about the “conservative” approach to standing in high-profile constitutional cases in a Slate article, and the application of basic standing principles in the mifepristone cases in this Dallas Morning News editorial.)
2. Comstock. Justice Holmes famously observed: “The common law is not a brooding omnipresence in the sky.” But the Comstock Act is, and Congress should do something about the law before its 1870s-era moralism is inflicted on modern society. Mark Stern’s X feed on the mifepristone arguments summarizes some of the present state of play.