Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-235_n7ip.pdf
Page Number: 9

Cite as:  602 U. S. ____ (2024) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

U. S. ___ (2023).  As a result of this Court’s stay, Mifeprex
and  generic  mifepristone  have  remained  available  as 
allowed by FDA’s relaxed 2016 and 2021 requirements.

A  few  months  later,  the  Court  of  Appeals  issued  its
decision  on  the  merits  of  the  District  Court’s  order, 
affirming in part and vacating in part.  78 F. 4th 210, 222– 
223 (CA5 2023).  The Court of Appeals first concluded that 
the individual doctors and the pro-life medical associations 
had  standing.  The  Court  of  Appeals  next  concluded  that 
plaintiffs  were  not  likely  to  succeed  on  their  challenge  to
FDA’s  2000  approval  of  Mifeprex  and  2019  approval  of 
generic mifepristone.  So the Court of Appeals vacated the 
District Court’s order as to those agency actions.  But the 
Court  of  Appeals  agreed  with  the  District  Court  that 
plaintiffs were likely to succeed in showing that FDA’s 2016
and 2021 actions were unlawful. 

The Court of Appeals’ merits decision did not alter this 
Court’s  stay  of  the  District  Court’s  order  pending  this
Court’s  review.    This  Court  then  granted  certiorari  with
respect to the 2016 and 2021 FDA actions held unlawful by 
the Court of Appeals.  601 U. S. ___ (2023). 

“bedrock 

III  standing 

II 
The  threshold  question  is  whether  the  plaintiffs  have
standing  to  sue  under  Article  III  of  the  Constitution. 
Article 
constitutional 
is  a 
requirement  that  this  Court  has  applied  to  all  manner  of 
important disputes.”  United States v. Texas, 599 U. S. 670, 
675 (2023).  Standing is “built on a single basic idea—the 
idea  of  separation  of  powers.”    Ibid.  (quotation  marks
omitted). 
Importantly,  separation  of  powers  “was  not
simply  an  abstract  generalization  in  the  minds  of  the
Framers: it was woven into the document that they drafted 
in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787.”  TransUnion LLC 
v. Ramirez, 594 U. S. 413, 422–423 (2021) (quotation marks 
omitted).  Therefore, we  begin  as  always  with  the  precise