No, it was never about being ‘ left to the states’. The right-wing wants to impose its will on the entire country.
So Much for Leaving Abortion Up to the States
Louisiana’s case against the FDA is not just about one drug.
By Adam Serwer
June 14, 2026, 7:31 AM ET
The 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, supposedly gave states the authority to decide for themselves whether to permit abortion. What should have been apparent then, and is obvious now, is that anti-abortion activists and their allies on the high court were never going to be satisfied with that.
Since October, the state of Louisiana has been seeking to block the distribution of mifepristone, a drug used to induce abortion, through the mail—not just in Louisiana, but anywhere in the United States. The state’s lawsuit against the FDA asserts that the Comstock Act—an anti-obscenity law championed by the 19th-century book burner Anthony Comstock—bans the mailing of abortion medication, and that the federal government wrongly repealed the in-person requirement for prescribing it.
“Louisiana is complaining about reported harms in Louisiana, but they would be imposing a nationwide requirement that patients pick up the pill in person from their health-care provider, even in states that protect abortion access, even in states that explicitly, in their laws, allow for telemedicine provision of mifepristone,” Andrew Beck, an attorney with the ACLU, told me. “Louisiana is really trying to impose its own policy choices on the entire country.”
Medication abortion accounts for about two-thirds of all abortions in the United States, which have actually increased since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization made it possible to send mifepristone through the mail. Providers were first able to mail the drug during the pandemic, a temporary measure that was made permanent by the FDA in 2023. Even in Louisiana, which has a strict anti-abortion law with few exceptions, the number of abortions has risen, according to the state’s lawsuit. This was in part because Louisianans were able to access abortion drugs through providers based in states where the procedure is legal. Indeed—abortion medication has made it possible for women who live far from any clinic to end unwanted pregnancies. Many of those pro-abortion-rights states had passed “shield laws” that protected providers in their jurisdictions from being sued or prosecuted by authorities in anti-abortion states.
Although Louisiana v. FDA is ostensibly about a federal regulatory decision and the safety of an abortion drug, it is really about access to abortion. Louisiana even began its complaint with the declaration that “the fight for life is far from over.” The FDA has asked the court to hold off on a ruling for now, as the Trump administration has said it is conducting its own review of the drug (all medical evidence indicates that mifepristone is safe). In the meantime, two drug companies are asking the courts to allow the continued distribution of mifepristone. The Supreme Court responded to this question on May 14, overturning a lower order that halted distribution and sending the case back for review. The late Justice Antonin Scalia once predicted that overturning Roe would get the Court out of the “abortion-umpiring business.” That prediction has not aged well.
…………………………
Whatever happens next, the legal battle reveals that the paradise of abortion federalism is a fraud. Either anti-abortion states will get to impose their policies on pro-abortion-rights states, or they will have to live with their residents being able to access abortion care from providers elsewhere.
“Those who oppose abortion are not satisfied with the Supreme Court’s ruling that it should be up to the states to decide abortion policy,” Nancy Northup, the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, told me. “They want a national ban. They’ve always wanted a national ban. And this case, Louisiana v. FDA, is a type of effort to get at least a national ban on medication abortion.”
Lawmakers in anti-abortion states have sought to ban or criminalize the sharing of information about abortion, such as through a Texas proposal that would outlaw providing “information on the method for obtaining an abortion-inducing drug.” Anti-abortion states have tried to sue Planned Parenthood for providing accurate information about the safety of abortion drugs; Florida accused the organization of violating its racketeering law. Early efforts at restricting pregnant women’s travel have been stymied in the courts, but Texas’s bounty law, which allows a private individual to sue anyone who helps someone else get an abortion, is still in effect.
There’s no need to travel, however, if you can get what you need through the mail. Since 2023, the anti-abortion movement’s biggest priority has been trying to block the distribution of abortion medication nationally, either by reversing the FDA’s approval of mailing mifepristone or by getting the Supreme Court to rule that Comstock retains the authority to “enforce evangelical Protestant doctrine regarding sexuality,” as the historian Amy Werbel described the law in Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock.
………………………
If Louisiana succeeded in halting the mailing of mifepristone, people could still access an alternative drug, such as misoprostol, but anti-abortion advocates aren’t simply trying to make one particular drug harder to get, and they surely wouldn’t stop with this case. Access to abortion through telehealth is an “existential threat” to the anti-abortion movement, Rachel Rebouché, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has helped pro-abortion-rights states draft shield laws, told me. “The average number of abortions has gone up, and people in banned states are getting pills. It’s a threat because you can try to police it, but doing so would be very expensive, very intrusive, and it’s probably going to create a massive backlash.” Louisianans probably don’t want cops ransacking their mail any more than New Yorkers do.
Before Dobbs was even issued, abortion-rights advocates knew that red states would try to impose civil liabilities on out-of-state medical professionals. This is because Republicans announced their intentions publicly: In March 2022, two months before the Dobbs opinion was leaked, Missouri Republicans were considering a proposal to impose civil liabilities on anyone who helped a woman get an abortion out of state. Texas’s bounty law, which also applies to out-of-state abortions, was passed in 2021.
Given that anti-abortion advocates see themselves as fighting for life (although not the lives of women dying in anti-abortion states—those don’t seem to count), they were never likely to let state borders confine their efforts. So abortion-rights advocates began pushing for the shield laws; in March 2022, Rebouché and two fellow law professors, David S. Cohen and Greer Donley, made the case for them in The New York Times. Shield laws have been passed in 22 states and Washington, D.C.
“We started to think, Let’s map out all the ways interstate conflict is gonna manifest—all the things that we think that states are gonna do to try to extend their abortion bans across their borders to patients, to providers, and the like,” Rebouché told me. “It can’t be that the end goal is just to ban abortion in a state. The end goal has to be to ban abortion everywhere.”
The point is that Alito’s timeline is wrong. Shield laws were not a response to Dobbs itself; they were a response to Republicans’ threats to extend their bans on abortion beyond their own borders once Roe was overturned.
“Many of the same anti-abortion politicians who were telling the Court, Hey, we should leave this to each individual state to decide its own policies—they immediately set about trying to impose their own restrictions on abortion care that was taking place legally elsewhere,” Beck said.
Marc Elias
@marcelias.bsky.social
VICTORY: A federal appeals court panel Wednesday dealt the Trump administration its first appellate defeat in its nationwide crusade to obtain unredacted state voter rolls — after nine straight district court losses and no wins. http://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
https://bsky.app/profile/marcelias.bsky.social/post/3mp2nbcbnys2j
Norm Eisen
@normeisen.bsky.social
Follow
Today is the first day of oral arguments for Rep. McIver, who faces 17 years in prison for conducting cong. oversight of ICE
Her case will decide whether lawmakers can do their jobs, or be targeted for doing them
We
@democracydefendersfund.org
stand by Rep. McIver
http://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/24/n...
https://bsky.app/profile/normeisen.bsky.social/post/3mp26dkguv22e
🪷 A Harris Democrat✊🏾
@sephius1999
All DSA type can do is win in sapphire blue cities and districts. And they are specifically going after Black and Jewish politicians. The Democratic party is becoming a party that has Russian sympathizer, Hamas-sympathizer, and no longer cares about civil rights…just GAAAZA!!!!
3:12 AM · Jun 24, 2026
https://x.com/sephius1999/status/2069619728964854009
Michelle_BYoung
@michelle_byoung
The DSA is treating Black people like we come with the party and will fall in with whomever has a D behind their name. That’s a miscalculation. They’re assuming that B voters are choosing between voting D or voting R when ANYONE who works voter turnout will tell you the choice…
https://x.com/michelle_byoung/status/2069785971546099923
Michelle_BYoung
@michelle_byoung
Replying to @michelle_byoung
2) The choice B voters are usually making is between VOTING AT ALL or NOT VOTING! Particularly in places like where i live in OH where long lines can mean waiting for hours & missing a days pay. If voters aren’t motivated to SHOW UP for a far left that keeps ostracizing them 🤷🏾♀️
2:17 PM · Jun 24, 2026
https://x.com/michelle_byoung/status/2069787022802206882
Domo Julio
@DapperDomo
White liberals threatening Black voters with Ken Paxton, then claiming they’re doing it because they care about Black children, is exactly why so many Black people question who their real allies are. Political entitlement isn’t solidarity.
tiktok.com/t/ZP8sKyPhP/
https://x.com/DapperDomo/status/2069767349855559769
lili von shtupp 🇬🇾🇺🇸🕉️
@lili_shtupp
Replying to @michelle_byoung
They have a few tokens and like republicans think black people will follow. They think black people are motivated by skin color alone. Then get mad when black folks don’t support tokens like Cori Bush. Both sides have a slave view of black people.
6:09 PM · Jun 24, 2026
https://x.com/lili_shtupp/status/2069845354032345225
#JoeMama🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🌻🪷
@Mama4Obama1
Replying to @michelle_byoung
Tell them . That video of them chanting at Hakeem Jeffries “you’re next “ , is giving anti Blackness. See they try to mask it as something else but nope . At least Republican are up front about their hatred of us and us having power.
3:12 PM · Jun 24, 2026
https://x.com/Mama4Obama1/status/2069800959580996002
Marc E. Elias
@marceelias
I just sent this out to Democracy Docket premium members, but in light of the Postmasters comments this morning threatening voting by mail, I felt it is urgent to post it online for everyone.
Please read and share.
https://x.com/marceelias/status/2069818823398580730
Democracy Docket
@DemocracyDocket
NEW: Republicans sued to block Michigan’s newly enacted protections that make it harder for partisan poll challengers to interrupt the state’s ballot-counting process.
The lawsuit reflects the GOP’s growing efforts to challenge vote counting and undermine trust in elections before the midterms. democracydocket.com/news-alerts/re…
https://x.com/DemocracyDocket/status/2069825251253407992
FlameAlchemist🇺🇸
@FocusedJustice
Fulton Co., GA released a 600-pg reparations taskforce finding showing how slave labor built bridges/railroads & how poor white ppl made $ owning 1 slave by leasing
600-page reparations report reveals harms across a decade of enslavement in Fulton County
https://x.com/FocusedJustice/status/2069598565911912493
JUDGE RULES AGAINST THAT VOTER DATABASE DHS WAS CREATING.
Mike Young
@micyoung75
Agencies knew the citizenship data was unreliable. Built the prohibited database anyway. Shared it with Texas and Louisiana. Eligible voters got purged. Judge Sooknanan: the government “knowingly trampled” privacy rights in a way that “threatens the sacred right to vote.” She also found falsely labeling a citizen a non-citizen is defamation. 75 pages. In writing.
https://x.com/micyoung75/status/2069662053795823796
Republicans against Trump
@RpsAgainstTrump
NY Attorney General Letitia James criticized NYC Mayor Mamdani and some of his endorsed candidates in New York City’s Democratic primaries, telling CNN that some of those candidates don’t understand the communities they want to represent and are disconnected from the history and struggles of many NYC districts.
She also said that she and other Democratic leaders are “disappointed” in Mamdani, adding, “All of us are a little frustrated with the Democratic Party. But you don’t blow it up. That’s what MAGA has done.”
https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/2069779210093097285
Longtime Black Man Here
@groove_sdc
Oh uh I smell another Black woman DSA is suddenly going to try and disparage and run out of politics à la Jasmine Crockett.
They already have the playbook.
Can’t wait until they try and run it against Attorney General James.
Don’t think this is gonna turn out how they think.
https://x.com/groove_sdc/status/2069795238499991957
GOOD
Joyce Alene
@JoyceWhiteVance
More than 100 former judges have filed an ethics complaint against Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, alleging he has used the Justice Department to advance Donald Trump’s personal and political interests.
This is not a routine bar complaint.
Read more here: open.substack.com/pub/joycevance…
https://x.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/2069635554023485626
UH HUH
The United States versus Elon Reed Musk
@Needle_of_Arya
pay attention to the spontaneous hatred of former DNC chair Jaime Harrison coming from many of the party’s white people only to the extent of looking at it from the viewpoint of 2028 and beyond, when he will be vindicated and they will look like opportunistic, racist fools
1:40 PM · Jun 24, 2026
https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/2069777707488166378
ost
user avatar
Nav Toor
@heynavtoor
A student submitted an essay she wrote by hand. Her university ran it through an AI detector. The detector said she cheated. She is autistic.
Her name is Moira Olmsted. Adelphi University. February 2026. Turnitin flagged her essay as 100% AI-generated. She was disciplined.
Two other AI detectors classified the same essay as human-written.
She sued. She won. The court called the school’s decision “arbitrary and capricious.”
She is not the only one.
In May 2026, a high school student in Palo Alto was expelled after an AI detector flagged his work. He faced visa revocation. He filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.
A researcher at Griffith University just proved mathematically why this keeps happening. The paper is on arXiv. The finding is one sentence.
AI text detectors have a structural flaw that no amount of better engineering can fix.
Here is what the math says.
If a university wants its detector to catch 80% of cheaters, at least 750 out of every 10,000 innocent students will be wrongly accused. That is not a software problem. It is a theorem.
If the university tries to limit false accusations to 1%, detection power collapses to 6%. It catches 6 out of every 100 AI-written papers. The other 94 get through.
There is no setting where the detector is both fair and effective.
The reason is diversity. Every student writes differently. Non-native English speakers use simpler vocabulary. Shorter sentences. Clearer structures. So does AI. A Stanford study found that 61.3% of TOEFL essays written by non-native English speakers were misclassified as AI-generated. A separate analysis tested 14 commercial detection tools. Zero out of 14 reached 80% accuracy.
The students most likely to be wrongly accused are non-native English speakers, neurodivergent students, and anyone who writes with clarity and precision. The qualities that make their writing effective are the same qualities the detector mistakes for a machine.
Vanderbilt University understood this. They disabled Turnitin’s AI detection in 2023 after calculating that even a 1% error rate across 75,000 submissions would produce 750 wrongful accusations per year.
750 students accused of cheating for writing like themselves.
The paper’s conclusion is not that we need better detectors. It is that the diversity of human writing itself makes accurate detection mathematically impossible.
The same thing that makes your writing yours is the thing that gets you accused.
arxiv.org/abs/2603.20254
https://x.com/heynavtoor/status/2069519369487753560
Quincy Avery
@QuincyAvery
Please refrain from asking Black folks sitting next to you in first class what they do for work.
Signed,
The Black delegation (excluding Sage Steele and Jason Whitlock)
12:03 PM · Jun 24, 2026
https://x.com/QuincyAvery/status/2069753341454823610
I honestly thought this was already happening.
U.S. Mission Nigeria
Department of State
@USinNigeria
The Department of State, in coordination with @HHSGov, is revoking passports of Americans with significant outstanding child support debt. If you are outside the U.S. and your passport is revoked, you can schedule an appointment at the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate for a limited passport, valid only for direct return to the United States. Once your debt is paid, you can apply for a full validity passport. More at travel.state.gov/childsupport
https://x.com/USinNigeria/status/2069798954997264530
UH HUH
UH HUH
Dirty Laundry Media 🇺🇸
@Billtheicon
A 1972 Harvard Report, commissioned by Clive Davis for CBS, outlined a strategy for white-owned corporations to enter and financially exploit the booming Black music market, which was then dominated by independent labels.
https://x.com/Billtheicon/status/2069492290880475272
But but but…
He was the WWC Whisperer..
And the Latinos were going to vote for him and never vote for Crockett…that’s what they said in the primary.
53% LATINO SUPPORT IS CRAZY AFTER ALL THIS ADMINISTRATION HAS DONE.
Forever chasing that YT Adjacency….
Chris Towler
@blkprofcct
Support for Talarico by race:
White – 35%
Latino – 53%
Other – 65%
Black – 72%
Talarico never had a Black voter problem. If anything, he needs to worry about convincing other groups he’s the right candidate. But he will need Black voters out in full force for things to be close.
https://x.com/blkprofcct/status/2069590665571529200
BMB Empower Network
@Bmbempower
Ummm 🤔 72% of the #Blackvote will not win the #Senate in #Texas, but you still have 4 solid months left! But where are the white voters? #JasmineCrockett focused her campaign on the Black and Latino communities, which together represent 61% of Texas’s population, she’s giving yall the blueprint how to win Texae. Just a reminder: Texas has 4.5 million registered Black voters. In 2018 Beto lost by 2.6 points, which translates to about 215,000 votes. Additionally, 1.5 million eligible Black Texans did not cast their ballots in other words yall got work to DO @jamestalarico @TeamTalaricoHQ. Remember, you have 4 good months ahead! Thank you @blkprofcct for breaking down by race.
https://x.com/Bmbempower/status/2069766018763829681
Mallory McMorrow
@MalloryMcMorrow
One billionaire family controls the bridge that carries 25% of all U.S.–Canada trade.
The good news? There’s a brand new public bridge right next door (and Canada paid for the whole thing).
The bad news? Donald Trump won’t let it open.
Here’s the story:
For more than a decade, Michigan and Canada worked together to build a new public crossing right next to it — six lanes over the Detroit River, named for a Canadian-born Red Wings legend, built by thousands of union workers. Canada paid the entire bill. Michigan co-owns it. It’s finished. It’s a shining example of international cooperation and collaboration, with a tremendous return for both sides: more jobs, faster trade, and lower costs.
So why isn’t it open?
Because the Moroun family, who own the rival Ambassador Bridge just up the river, doesn’t want the competition. They spent years and tens of millions of dollars trying to stop any competing international crossing from being built or opening. They lost. So they went to the White House instead.
In January, Matthew Moroun gave $1 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. Then the billionaire called Trump’s Commerce Secretary and, just hours later, Trump suddenly attacked the same publicly owned bridge he praised in his own first term and threatened to block it.
Then, the day before the June 12th ribbon-cutting, the opening was called off indefinitely.
It’s corruption so flagrant it would be laughable if it weren’t so damaging.
Trump is screwing over Michiganders for the interests of billionaires — holding a finished, publicly owned project hostage to protect one donor’s toll booth.
So a finished bridge sits closed, Michiganders keep paying the higher tolls, cars and trucks cost more, and a billionaire family keeps its monopoly.
Mr. President: stop playing games. Open the damn bridge.
https://x.com/MalloryMcMorrow/status/2069752120228610494
Creole Louisiana 🇺🇸
@bAnthonYsr
A 27-year-old Black woman, Tonea Miller, was found lynched from a tree on June 18 after visiting Miami to celebrate Juneteenth weekend‼️🧐
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office initially classified the incident as an “apparent suicide” but no one is buying that at all.
Tonea’s family are actively seeking an independent autopsy and demanding a thorough investigation.
I’m not surprised it’s not getting much coverage, but I’m going to do my best to get her name out there‼️🤔
https://x.com/bAnthonYsr/status/2069654943057814010
Steve Vladeck
@stevevladeck.bsky.social
Follow
Here’s my list of the 11 remaining “merits” cases in which we expect decisions from #SCOTUS starting tomorrow (and 1–2 other days—maybe Friday/Monday/Tuesday).
We also expect a ruling on President Trump’s emergency application in the Lisa Cook case.
The key to the color coding is in the alt-text.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevevladeck.bsky.social/post/3mp2lhpy3e22w
2strong2silence.bsky.social
@2strong2silence.bsky.social
Follow
All you need to know about “progressives”🙄🙄🙄 is that they cannot tell you who Lauren Underwood is & don’t think she’s anyone. Yes someone that actually gets legislation passed as opposed to appearing on RuPaul’s drag race would seem boring to you. Fuck all of you.
9:22 AM · Jun 24, 2026
https://bsky.app/profile/2strong2silence.bsky.social/post/3mp24hq3g5k2q
Trifid Duane of Canada🍁🇨🇦
@trifidofcanada.bsky.social
In 2019 Utah State began a project to introduce Beavers to Utah’s Price River.
Six years later, water levels in the river are now the healthiest they’ve been in years.
The fish are thriving, and Utah residents are overjoyed with the experiment’s results.
http://www.upworthy.com/beavers-refr...
https://bsky.app/profile/trifidofcanada.bsky.social/post/3mp2bhwbmsk2z
Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
First to MS NOW:
Senate Democrats are calling on the U.S. Postal Service not to move ahead with new mail-in ballot regulations that, they say, will “establish President Trump’s control over federal elections.”
Democrats fear the USPS could be transformed “into a federal election administration agency — with frightening authorities to disenfranchise Americans.”
ms.now/news/senate-de…
https://x.com/kylegriffin1/status/2069867116862570728
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊