On March 15, a federal district court in Texas heard arguments in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food & Drug Administration, in which AHM is seeking to force the FDA to revoke its approval of mifepristone, a widely use abortion medication. While most commentary on the case has focused on the substance of the suit, the administrative law questions are more likely to control the outcome.
As I noted in this post on the case, there are substantial obstacles to a court properly reaching the merits of the case, including Article III standing and the statute of limitations for suits of this kind. Drawing on an analysis by Adam Unikowsky, I explained why these issues should spell the end of the case. AHM's case relies upon a very aggressive theory of standing and stretching the reopening doctrine to overcome the statute of limitations.
Erin Hawley of the Alliance Defense Fund is one of the attorneys representing AHM in the case. Below the fold I reproduce her response to my post, which largely focuses on the question of standing, and my reply.
