Washington
Supreme Court temporarily extends women’s access to a widely used abortion pill
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving women’s access to a widely used abortion pill untouched until at least Thursday, while the justices consider whether to allow restrictions on the drug, mifepristone, to take effect.
Justice Samuel Alito’s order Monday allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. It prevents restrictions on mifepristone imposed by a federal appeals court from taking effect for the time being.
The court is dealing with its latest abortion controversy four years after its conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.
The case before the court stems from a lawsuit Louisiana filed to roll back the Food and Drug Administration’s rules on how mifepristone can be prescribed. The state claims the policy undermines the ban there, and it
questions the safety of the drug, which was first approved in 2000 and has repeatedly been deemed safe and effective by FDA scientists.
Lower courts concluded that Louisiana is likely to prevail, and a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mail access and telehealth visits should be suspended while the case plays out.
The drug is most often used for abortion in combination with another drug, misoprostol. Medication abortions accounted for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. in 2023, the last year for which statistics are available.
The current dispute is similar to one that reached the court three years ago.
Lower courts then also sought to restrict access to mifepristone, in a case brought by physicians who oppose abortion. They filed suit in the months after the court overturned Roe.
The Supreme Court blocked the 5th Circuit ruling from taking effect over the dissenting votes of Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas. Then, in 2024, the high court unanimously dismissed the doctors’ suit, reasoning they did not have the legal right, or standing, to sue.
In the current dispute, mainstream medical groups, the pharmaceutical industry and Democratic members of Congress have weighed in cautioning the court against limiting access to the drug. Pharmaceutical companies said a ruling for abortion opponents would upend the drug approval process.
The FDA has eased a number of restrictions initially placed on the drug, including who can prescribe it, how it is dispensed and what kinds of safety complications must be reported.
Despite those determinations, abortion opponents have been challenging the safety of mifepristone for more than 25 years. They have filed a series of petitions and lawsuits against the agency, generally alleging that it violated federal law by overlooking safety issues with the pill.
President Donald Trump’s administration has been unusually quiet at the Supreme Court. It declined to file a written brief recommending what the court should do, even though federal regulations are at issue.
The case puts Trump’s Republican administration in a difficult place. Trump has relied on the political support of anti-abortion groups but has also seen ballot question and poll results that show Americans generally
support abortion rights.
Both sides took the silence as an implicit endorsement of the appellate ruling. Alito is both the justice in charge of handling emergency appeals from Louisiana and the author of the 2022 decision that declared abortion is not a constitutional right and returned the issue to the states.
Georgia
Small town reinstates police officers and department 2 days after mayor fired them all
COHUTTA, Ga. (AP) — A town council in a small north Georgia mountain community passed an ordinance Friday reinstating the community’s police department and restoring the jobs of the police officers two days after the mayor fired them all.
A standing room-only crowd of townspeople, news media and the police officers attended the special meeting of the Cohutta Town Council, council member and Vice Mayor Shane Kornberg told The Associated Press afterward.
The officers were reinstated immediately and will receive back pay, Kornberg said.
A sign posted earlier this week in the town of about 930 people announced that the police department had been dissolved “per Mayor Ron Shinnick.” It told people who need help to call a nonemergency county number.
The jobs of the chief and about 10 officers were terminated as of Wednesday morning. Exact reasons haven’t been shared publicly.
Shinnick said he took action because of some comments officers posted on social media. The now-former Sgt. Jeremy May said it involved a complaint that he and other officers had raised about the mayor’s wife, Pam Shinnick, who had served as the town clerk.
“This all comes to personal vendetta from the mayor, and I wholeheartedly believe that,” May told WRCB-TV. “We took a stand for transparency, and in result, every one of them has lost their jobs.”
The now-former Cohutta Police Chief Greg Fowler told WRCB that he couldn’t comment in detail as the officers were clearing out the police department and removing equipment from the building this week. The mayor told the station he’s not sure what will happen next.
Phone calls and emails left Friday for the mayor were not immediately returned.
Kornberg said the town’s attorney, Bryan Rayburn, told the council the officers’ firings hadn’t followed the town charter, which requires 30 days’ notice be given before employees can be suspended or removed.
The council went into executive session to discuss matters of litigation. When they emerged, the mayor voluntarily didn’t return to the meeting, Kornberg said.
Kornberg, as vice mayor, took over the meeting. The council then passed the ordinance reinstating the officers and another measure preventing the mayor from firing the officers for the next 30 days.
The council then voted to table “for the foreseeable future” the rest of the meeting’s agenda, which involved removing Shinnick.
When no Cohutta officers were working, the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office had said deputies would help the townspeople if needed. Cohutta, just south of the Tennessee line, is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta.
Multiple townspeople said Friday evening they were attempting to livestream the meeting on social media, but weak cell service in the area did not allow them to do so.
Supreme Court temporarily extends women’s access to a widely used abortion pill
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving women’s access to a widely used abortion pill untouched until at least Thursday, while the justices consider whether to allow restrictions on the drug, mifepristone, to take effect.
Justice Samuel Alito’s order Monday allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. It prevents restrictions on mifepristone imposed by a federal appeals court from taking effect for the time being.
The court is dealing with its latest abortion controversy four years after its conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.
The case before the court stems from a lawsuit Louisiana filed to roll back the Food and Drug Administration’s rules on how mifepristone can be prescribed. The state claims the policy undermines the ban there, and it
questions the safety of the drug, which was first approved in 2000 and has repeatedly been deemed safe and effective by FDA scientists.
Lower courts concluded that Louisiana is likely to prevail, and a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mail access and telehealth visits should be suspended while the case plays out.
The drug is most often used for abortion in combination with another drug, misoprostol. Medication abortions accounted for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. in 2023, the last year for which statistics are available.
The current dispute is similar to one that reached the court three years ago.
Lower courts then also sought to restrict access to mifepristone, in a case brought by physicians who oppose abortion. They filed suit in the months after the court overturned Roe.
The Supreme Court blocked the 5th Circuit ruling from taking effect over the dissenting votes of Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas. Then, in 2024, the high court unanimously dismissed the doctors’ suit, reasoning they did not have the legal right, or standing, to sue.
In the current dispute, mainstream medical groups, the pharmaceutical industry and Democratic members of Congress have weighed in cautioning the court against limiting access to the drug. Pharmaceutical companies said a ruling for abortion opponents would upend the drug approval process.
The FDA has eased a number of restrictions initially placed on the drug, including who can prescribe it, how it is dispensed and what kinds of safety complications must be reported.
Despite those determinations, abortion opponents have been challenging the safety of mifepristone for more than 25 years. They have filed a series of petitions and lawsuits against the agency, generally alleging that it violated federal law by overlooking safety issues with the pill.
President Donald Trump’s administration has been unusually quiet at the Supreme Court. It declined to file a written brief recommending what the court should do, even though federal regulations are at issue.
The case puts Trump’s Republican administration in a difficult place. Trump has relied on the political support of anti-abortion groups but has also seen ballot question and poll results that show Americans generally
support abortion rights.
Both sides took the silence as an implicit endorsement of the appellate ruling. Alito is both the justice in charge of handling emergency appeals from Louisiana and the author of the 2022 decision that declared abortion is not a constitutional right and returned the issue to the states.
Georgia
Small town reinstates police officers and department 2 days after mayor fired them all
COHUTTA, Ga. (AP) — A town council in a small north Georgia mountain community passed an ordinance Friday reinstating the community’s police department and restoring the jobs of the police officers two days after the mayor fired them all.
A standing room-only crowd of townspeople, news media and the police officers attended the special meeting of the Cohutta Town Council, council member and Vice Mayor Shane Kornberg told The Associated Press afterward.
The officers were reinstated immediately and will receive back pay, Kornberg said.
A sign posted earlier this week in the town of about 930 people announced that the police department had been dissolved “per Mayor Ron Shinnick.” It told people who need help to call a nonemergency county number.
The jobs of the chief and about 10 officers were terminated as of Wednesday morning. Exact reasons haven’t been shared publicly.
Shinnick said he took action because of some comments officers posted on social media. The now-former Sgt. Jeremy May said it involved a complaint that he and other officers had raised about the mayor’s wife, Pam Shinnick, who had served as the town clerk.
“This all comes to personal vendetta from the mayor, and I wholeheartedly believe that,” May told WRCB-TV. “We took a stand for transparency, and in result, every one of them has lost their jobs.”
The now-former Cohutta Police Chief Greg Fowler told WRCB that he couldn’t comment in detail as the officers were clearing out the police department and removing equipment from the building this week. The mayor told the station he’s not sure what will happen next.
Phone calls and emails left Friday for the mayor were not immediately returned.
Kornberg said the town’s attorney, Bryan Rayburn, told the council the officers’ firings hadn’t followed the town charter, which requires 30 days’ notice be given before employees can be suspended or removed.
The council went into executive session to discuss matters of litigation. When they emerged, the mayor voluntarily didn’t return to the meeting, Kornberg said.
Kornberg, as vice mayor, took over the meeting. The council then passed the ordinance reinstating the officers and another measure preventing the mayor from firing the officers for the next 30 days.
The council then voted to table “for the foreseeable future” the rest of the meeting’s agenda, which involved removing Shinnick.
When no Cohutta officers were working, the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office had said deputies would help the townspeople if needed. Cohutta, just south of the Tennessee line, is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta.
Multiple townspeople said Friday evening they were attempting to livestream the meeting on social media, but weak cell service in the area did not allow them to do so.
