Court temporarily suspends Republican Party’s political death march

I emphasize the “temporary,” but this is better than the alternative of the order staying in place:

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. issued a temporary stay on Friday ensuring that a common abortion pill would remain widely available while the Supreme Court decides whether to grant a formal stay. The interim stay will expire at midnight on Wednesday.

Such a stay is meant to preserve the status quo while the justices study the briefs and lower court rulings, and it did not forecast how the justices would ultimately rule.

Justice Alito, the member of the court responsible for overseeing the appeals court whose ruling is at issue, ordered the groups challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the pill to file their brief by Tuesday at noon.

The move followed an emergency application filed Friday morning by the Biden administration asking the justices to intervene.

The administration’s brief, in the first major abortion case to reach the justices since they eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in June, asked the court to pause parts of an appeals court ruling that had limited the availability of the pill, mifepristone.

“If allowed to take effect, the lower courts’ orders would upend the regulatory regime for mifepristone, with sweeping consequences for the pharmaceutical industry, women who need access to the drug, and F.D.A.’s ability to implement its statutory authority,” the brief said.

I suspect the John Roberts Internal Lobbying Machine is going to be ramped up and arguing that this might not be the very best time for a nationwide ban on the most common abortion method, and I only wish it had a better track record of success.