Timeliness and the Texas Abortion Pill Case

In my last post, I discussed the legal issue of “standing” in the abortion pill lawsuit in Texas – whether the pro-life plaintiff doctors and organizations are able to sue the FDA. The issue of whether the lawsuit is timely is also at the heart of the case. Since my last post, the case has

Standing and the Texas Abortion Pill Case

Pro-lifers are applauding the recent decision by a federal district court in Texas to ban the abortion pill mifepristone. But the celebration is premature. The decision has many legal problems, there’s a significant chance it won’t survive appellate scrutiny, and a final decision is far in the future. The lawsuit, entitled Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

Legal Issues on Chemical Abortions

In January 2023, the FDA announced a new policy that permits a woman to obtain abortion drugs from any local pharmacy. This has precipitated a complex and often confusing battle over the laws affecting chemical abortions. Things change quickly, and there are a bunch of legal issues tangled up here – state abortion laws, limits on

Misinformation about Abortion Law after Dobbs

You can’t understand abortion law unless you understand abortion facts. And that is proving extremely difficult in a media and political environment that is full of misinformation and outright deception. In the legal and political environment after Dobbs, abortion law is now going to be a state-by-state affair. This naturally can be very confusing. But

Abortion Extremism on the Loose

Last week we saw the leak of a draft opinion in the major abortion case pending before the Supreme Court, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Since then, we’ve seen all sorts of storm and thunder, including ugly protests at churches, an alleged arson attack on a pregnancy help center, and angry demonstrations outside the

Turning Federalism to an Evil End

One of the major constitutional arguments against Roe v. Wade and its progeny is that the federal government has no business in the regulation of abortion. This argument is based on the principle of federalism, which is a fundamental part of our constitutional architecture. On the other side, the defenders of abortion have staunchly defended

Abortion Law Itself Depends on ‘Vigilante’ ‘Private Attorneys General’

(This post originally appeared at the Human Life Review’s “Newsworthy” blog.) The Washington Post’s critique of the Texas Heartbeat Law misses this irony. One person’s “vigilante” is another person’s “private attorney general.” It all depends on whose side you’re on. An interesting opinion piece disguised as a news analysis appeared in the Washington Post last week. It

Arizona Bill Reveals New Frontiers in Abortion Litigation

[This article was first published at the Human Life Review’s “Newsworthy” page. Please subscribe to and follow the Human Life Review, an indispensable source of pro-life information.] Pro-life legislative activism on the state level is heating up in advance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. One bill that’s moving forward

Celebrating the Rule of Law

Imagine that we were founding the United States in 2020 and had to craft a fundamental law that addressed the current situation. We’ve seen all kinds of restrictions on freedom of association and movement, arbitrary and shifting limits on religious worship, crushing regulation of economic activity, rampant conspiracy theories and challenges to election results, threats

A Catholic Lawyer’s Confirmation Hearing

by Ed Mechmann After Justice Ruth Ginsburg died, a friend jokingly suggested that she would contact the President and suggest that he nominate me for the vacancy. The chances of that happening are as far below zero as the temperature in outer space. But as a Catholic lawyer, I think it would be amusing to