Did anyone listen to the CA4 arguments this AM in the James/Comey appeal re Lindsay Halligan + Section 546.
My takeaway: Judge Richardson is annoying AF. He didn’t understand the statute, refused to concede that he misread it and just doubled down harder on (c)(2) - and the chapeau. Ignoramus.
![Case 3:23-cv-00019-RSB-JCH
Document 95
Pageid#: 3594
Filed 07/23/26
Page 19 of 48
challenged conduct, with a remedy that is more than speculative. Oryn Treadway Sheffield, Jr.,
Trust v. Consol. Coal Co., 819 F. Supp. 2d 625, 628 (W.D. Va. 2011). To sue in federal court and
obtain a ruling on the law, a plaintiff must have a "personal stake" in the dispute, not merely be a
bystander. TransUnion, 594 U.S. at 423 (citations omitted). Federal courts are not "open
forum[s] for citizens 'to press general complaints about the way in which government goes about
its business." All. for Hippocratic Med., 602 U.S. at 379 (quoting Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737,
760(1984)). In Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the Supreme Court stated that "[g]overnment
regulations that require or forbid some action by the plaintiff almost invariably satisfy both the
injury in fact and causation requirements. So, in those cases, standing is usually easy to
establish." 602 U.S. at 382 (citing Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 561-62 (1992)); see also 5 U.S.C. § 702 (The APA provides a claim to "person[s] ...adversely affected or aggrieved
by agency action.").
Here, Plaintiffs are a collection of health care providers and clinicians that prescribe
mifepristone. Dkt. 1 at 1-2. Accordingly, they are subject to the challenged 2023 REMS that
regulate the drug's prescription and distribution. Cf. All. for Hippocratic Med., 602 U.S. at 374
(finding that pro-life doctors and associations that did not prescribe mifepristone were
unregulated parties that lacked standing to challenge the FDA's regulation of others that did
prescribe or take the drug. Plaintiffs in this case allege that the REMS directly injure them by
causing delays in their certification of new hires, and generating significant administrative
burdens including alleged unnecessary recordkeeping, patient agreement form translation and
distribution challenges, and self-stocking of mifepristone given limitations placed on pharmacies
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