Bar Association Says Fifth Circuit’s Mifepristone Decision Undercuts Judicial Review

By overriding the FDA’s scientific judgments and methodology, the Fifth Circuit Court second-guessed the FDA’s congressional mandate to consider all scientific evidence in drug approval decisions, the American Bar Association (ABA) wrote in its recent amicus brief on the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming review of the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone.

Allowing the Fifth Circuit Court’s ruling restricting mifepristone access and prescribing to stand would also threaten long-settled principles of judicial review, according to the ABA’s amicus brief.

The Fifth Circuit ruling fails to recognize a long history of federal court decisions in favor of FDA’s scientific autonomy, the brief notes, noting several high-profile cases going back to 1980. “Unlike the Fifth Circuit in this case, other lower courts have consistently heeded Congress’s and this Court’s mandate of judicial deference to the FDA’s medical and scientific expertise,” the ABA noted.

Read the amicus brief here.

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