Challenge to FDA approval of mifepristone could affect women’s health rights. Plus, two men who spent years in jail are declared innocent
Good morning.
The supreme court is poised to decide whether to preserve access to a widely used abortion medication, after extending its deadline to act until at least today.
Less than a year after the court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v Wade and eliminated a constitutional right to an abortion, the justices are now weighing new legal questions in an escalating case in Texas with potentially sweeping implications for women’s reproductive health and the federal drug approval process.
For now, the court is not weighing the merits of a legal challenge brought by abortion opponents seeking to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of mifepristone. At issue before the court is whether to allow restrictions on the drug imposed by a lower court that would sharply limit access to the drug, including in states where abortion remains legal.
The justices had initially set a deadline of 11.59pm on Wednesday, but that afternoon Justice Samuel Alito issued a brief order extending the court’s deadline by 48 hours. The one-sentence order provided no explanation for the delay but indicated that the court expects to act before midnight on Friday.
Two men who served nearly 17 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of attempted murder were declared innocent Thursday by a California judge. Under a new law, the state is required to pay them each $140 for every day they spent behind bars, equating to about $900,000.
The verdicts for Dupree Glass and Juan Rayford concluded a new trial that began in October after a state appeals court panel vacated their convictions and they were freed in 2020. The trial included a dramatic confession by the actual shooter, Chad Brandon McZeal, a gang member who is serving a life sentence for murder in an unrelated case.
Outside the courthouse, the men were cheered by family members and supporters. Rayford, clutching his baby daughter, called it an “amazing” feeling to have their records finally wiped clean and their reputations restored.
Official autopsy results for Manuel Paez Terán, an environmental activist whom police shot and killed three months ago during a raid in a Georgia public park, have revealed he had more than 50 bullet wounds.
