{"id":21,"date":"2026-05-15T18:36:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=21"},"modified":"2026-05-15T18:36:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:36:38","slug":"samuel-alito-is-fuming-that-blue-states-outsmarted-his-dobbs-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=21","title":{"rendered":"Samuel Alito Is Fuming That Blue States Outsmarted His Dobbs Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sign up for\u00a0<\/em>Executive Dysfunction<\/em>, a newsletter that highlights one under-the-radar story each week about how Trump is changing the law\u2014or how the law is pushing back. You\u2019ll also receive updates on the latest from Slate\u2019s Jurisprudence team.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Todd Blanche\u2019s Latest Audition to Be Trump\u2019s Attorney General May Be His Most Desperate Yet<\/a><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court restored telehealth access to abortion pills on Thursday in an emergency order that provoked seething dissents from Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. With just the , the court halted a by the 5th<\/sup> U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had prohibited providers across the country from prescribing and mailing mifepristone through telemedicine. Blue states have preserved access to this drug, the first used in a medication abortion, by authorizing their providers to prescribe and mail the pills across state lines. At Louisiana\u2019s request, the 5th<\/sup> Circuit had tried to halt this flow from mifepristone into states that criminalize reproductive health care, but SCOTUS has kept the pipeline open\u2014for now. In dissent, Thomas accused these providers of participating in a \u201ccriminal enterprise\u201d and implied that they should be imprisoned. Alito, meanwhile, fumed that blue states had undermined his decision overturning Roe v. Wade <\/em>by outsmarting anti-abortion lawmakers.<\/p>\n

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On this week\u2019s Slate Plus bonus episode of Amicus, co-host Mark Joseph Stern discussed Thursday\u2019s decision with Madiba Dennie, deputy editor of Balls and Strikes and author of The Originalism Trap<\/em>. An excerpt of their conversation about Thomas and Alito\u2019s dissents, below, has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

Mark Joseph Stern: Let\u2019s start with Thomas\u2019 dissent, which was insane. He suggested that abortion providers who mail mifepristone should be thrown in prison rather than granted relief by the Supreme Court. He claimed: \u201cIt is a criminal offense to ship mifepristone for use in abortions.\u201d And he added that the drug\u2019s manufacturers \u201care not entitled to a stay of an adverse court order based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise,\u201d because they cannot \u201cbe irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually heavily contested whether the Comstock Act applies to this conduct; the Biden administration said it did not. But set that aside. What do you make of Justice Thomas trying to make the Comstock Act great again and declaring that all these providers who mail abortion pills are felons who deserve to be locked up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Madiba Dennie: <\/strong>He describes these pharmaceutical companies as if they\u2019re some guy on the corner selling heroin. \u201cProfits from their criminal enterprise\u201d? Someone\u2019s been watching too much crime TV. But it really is egregious, and it\u2019s trying to legitimize what was once a fringe theory that the Comstock Act does apply here and should be used to prosecute so many people. Think about how many people would be caught up in this: The companies themselves, the doctors, the pharmacies, the patients\u2014this is threatening to incarcerate all of them for the crime of pursuing or providing basic healthcare and helping make that possible. It\u2019s truly absurd. I think it just shows how far gone Clarence Thomas is. The language is on another level.<\/p>\n

We should note that Thomas\u2019 language here comes straight from far-right anti-abortion advocates, right? They have been saying for years that this is a \u201ccriminal network\u201d and a \u201ccriminal conspiracy.\u201d And Thomas just copies and pastes that stuff right into his dissent.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen this trend from Thomas for a while. He always describes abortion as this really nefarious operation; he\u2019s previously called it racial eugenics. With this dissent, he saw the opportunity to mix in criminality for good measure.<\/p>\n

Read more Why Is John Roberts in a Rush All of a Sudden?<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s turn to Justice Samuel Alito, whose dissent is slightly less crazy but way funnier because he\u2019s big mad. Alito complained that blue states are undermining his decision in Dobbs<\/em>, which overruled Roe v. Wade<\/em>, by allowing their providers to mail medication abortion into states where they\u2019re banned. Alito actually pointed out that there are more abortions happening in Louisiana now than before Dobbs<\/em> because of telehealth mifepristone. And he faults the FDA for \u201cfacilitat[ing]\u201d this \u201cfelonious\u201d conduct.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We should just pause to note here that Louisiana, if it wants, can choose to arrest people who use abortion pills under Dobbs<\/em>. It already has laws that prohibit the dispensation of abortion pills. It has many tools to persecute people who exercise or facilitate reproductive freedom within its borders. What Louisiana cannot do is reach across its state lines into New York and prosecute or fine a New York provider who\u2019s engaging in conduct that\u2019s completely legal under her state\u2019s laws. That\u2019s what Alito can\u2019t wrap his head around. It seems like he really thought Dobbs<\/em> was going to end abortion in red states forever, and he\u2019s sore as hell that blue states outsmarted him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was honestly pretty funny that he\u2019s so appalled there are more abortions happening now than before Dobbs<\/em>. It gives away the game a bit that this was never actually about restoring freedom to the states, as he claimed. It was just about ending abortion. And he\u2019s upset that it didn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n

Alito talks all about Louisiana\u2019s sovereign right to enact these anti-abortion laws. But what about New York\u2019s sovereignty? What about New York\u2019s right to enact pro-choice laws? He really does give the game away\u2014he thinks anti-abortion laws are just and legitimate while pro-choice laws are illegitimate and must be blocked.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was interesting how he portrayed shield laws in blue states as something untoward or nefarious targeting red states. He doesn\u2019t see them as protecting doctors in those states that continue to allow mifepristone. He thinks they\u2019re just trying to mess with red states and undermine red states\u2019 ability to ban abortion. He uses this comical, criminal-esque language, calling shield laws a \u201cscheme\u201d and an \u201coperation.\u201d But really, these blue states are just trying to allow their doctors to continue providing lawful services to their patients, wherever those patients may be.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s jarring to me is that we\u2019ve had this conversation before, more than 150 years ago. Today\u2019s shield laws are so similar to the personal liberty laws from the 1800s, when free states said: We\u2019re not going to return Black people who escaped from slave states. <\/em>Here, again, we have judges like Alito suggesting that unfree states should be able to reach into free states and impose their laws on everyone else\u2014to impose their unfreedom across the whole country. They\u2019re saying that free states should not be able to assist other people fleeing injustice. These are the reasons why we have the 14th<\/sup> Amendment; it\u2019s exactly the kind of thing the Constitution should prevent. But because the right-wing movement has been dismantling the Reconstruction Amendments, that leaves us where we are today instead.<\/p>\n

Right. In Alito\u2019s view, red states have absolute freedom to persecute abortion providers and patients, while blue states have no authority to protect them. It\u2019s so obvious what he\u2019s doing here. By the way, we should give a shout-out to the law professors who <\/strong> shield laws\u2014David Cohen, Rachel Rebouch\u00e9, and Greer Donley. They\u2019ve made Sam Alito very mad. So don\u2019t ever let anyone tell you law review articles don\u2019t matter.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more Florida\u2019s Attorney General Is Fighting to Outlaw Surrogacy. Adoption Could Be Next.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court restored telehealth access to abortion pills on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[27,28,18,11,30,29,15],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jurisprudence","tag-abortion","tag-clarence-thomas","tag-judiciary","tag-jurisprudence","tag-louisiana","tag-samuel-alito","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nSamuel Alito Is Fuming That Blue States Outsmarted His Dobbs Decision - Home Move Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=21\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Samuel Alito Is Fuming That Blue States Outsmarted His Dobbs Decision - 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