Louisiana filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold the 5th Circuit's nationwide block on mailing mifepristone — the drug used in roughly two-thirds of U.S. abortions — while the Trump DOJ submitted nothing, even though the federal government is a named defendant in the case. Justice Alito's temporary pause of the 5th Circuit order expires Monday at 5 p.m. EDT.
Said Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer at the ACLU: "The administration's silence speaks volumes and is a permission slip to the Supreme Court to restrict access to medication abortion nationwide, betraying decades of science and President Trump's campaign promises not to impose new federal restrictions on abortion."
Read the play: the White House avoids ownership while Louisiana does the work. If SCOTUS reinstates the in-person requirement, Trump claims clean hands. If Alito's pause holds, the base gets strung along. Either way, the administration collects the benefit without filing a single page.