No. 25A1207·Stay application·Filed by a private party·Presented to Justice Alito·From United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
What did the Court do?
The Court granted the request on May 14, 2026: the lower court's ruling is on hold while the appeal continues.
Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case. Justice Thomas and Justice Alito would have ruled the other way.
Filed · Ruled · 12 days after filing
What's being asked
Danco Laboratories, a company, asks the Supreme Court to pause the Fifth Circuit's May 1 order. The dispute concerns FDA rules allowing mifepristone to be prescribed online and sent by mail without an in-person doctor visit. Louisiana challenges those rules, arguing FDA relied on flawed or nonexistent data to justify the changes.
What the Court did
The Court gave Danco emergency help (granted its request), pausing the Fifth Circuit's May 1 order through its appeal. If it refuses a timely request to hear the case, the pause ends; if it agrees, the pause ends when it sends its judgment. The order does not decide who wins; Justices Thomas and Alito dissented (disagreed), and the Court did not publish the other justices' votes.
The order records the positions of 2 of 9 justices. The Court usually does not say how each justice voted on an emergency application, so the rest are shown as not published.
Filing30 days
Half of 82 rulings on applications where the Court asked for a response came 10 to 26 days after filing, and the median was 17 days; this one was ruled on 12 days after filing.
What it means
The temporary pause does not settle the dispute, and the appeal continues in the Fifth Circuit. No related Supreme Court case is listed, and no argument is set.
Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 25A1207. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.