2026-05-17 10:03:50 UTC / 路透社
作者：内特·雷蒙德
2026年5月17日 美国东部时间上午10:03 更新于1小时前
[1/3]2025年2月7日，美国路易斯安那州新奥尔良的约翰·米诺尔·威思美国上诉法院大楼。路透社/布莱恩·斯奈德/资料照片
- 内容提要
- 美国第五巡回上诉法院成为焦点
- 这家位于新奥尔良的法院以保守派裁决著称
- 最高法院暂缓第五巡回法院关于堕胎药的裁决
- 第五巡回法院的多项裁决上诉至最高法院
5月17日（路透社）——美国最高法院保留堕胎药米非司酮邮寄渠道的裁决，是该国最高司法机构最近一次遏制一家更为右翼的上诉法院的举动，这家法院坐落于美国南部。
最高法院周四暂缓了总部位于新奥尔良的美国第五巡回上诉法院5月1日的裁决，该裁决曾短暂禁止通过远程医疗开具米非司酮处方并邮寄配送该药物。自2022年最高法院允许各州禁止堕胎以来，米非司酮的获取渠道一直是美国文化战争的一个引爆点。
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最高法院以6票对3票的保守派多数席位，近年来将美国法律大幅向右推移。但第五巡回法院在几起关键案件中的裁决甚至超出了这位保守派最高法院所能容忍的范围，在堕胎药问题上更是两次如此。
“突破法理界限”
“在过去十年里，第五巡回法院愿意在社会议题上大幅向政治保守派方向突破法理界限，”位于新奥尔良的杜兰大学法学院法学教授萨莉·布朗·理查森说道。
理查森表示，这种趋势反映在最高法院选择审理的第五巡回法院裁决上诉案件的绝对数量上。
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第五巡回法院是美国12个地区上诉法院之一，级别仅次于最高法院。它审理来自路易斯安那州、德克萨斯州和密西西比州的案件，这三个州都是保守派占主导的南部州。该法院17名法官中有12名是由共和党总统任命的，其中6名由唐纳德·特朗普任命。
第五巡回法院已经成为保守派人士包括活动人士和共和党政客寻求推进其议程的首选法院。它就在堕胎、枪支权利和宗教自由等议题上作出了重大裁决，同时在移民政策等方面给特朗普的民主党前任乔·拜登的政府带来了政策挫折。
在周四暂缓第五巡回法院关于堕胎药的裁决、同时由共和党领导的路易斯安那州提起的限制该药物获取的诉讼继续进行的行动中，最高法院发布了一份简短的无署名命令，未解释其推理过程。其6名保守派大法官中仅有克拉伦斯·托马斯和塞缪尔·阿利托公开表示异议。
第五巡回法院的裁决经常被自由派利益集团上诉至最高法院。近年来，第五巡回法院裁决的上诉案件在最高法院审理的案件中占比过高。
在当前的2025-2026年九个月任期内，最高法院已经审理了10起源自第五巡回法院的案件，数量超过其他任何联邦上诉法院。
2024-2025年任期也是如此，共有13起来自第五巡回法院的案件。根据SCOTUSblog网站收集的数据，最高法院在其中10起案件中推翻了第五巡回法院的裁决。
“有好几个案例表明，最高法院利用第五巡回法院来标榜自己可能更平衡或温和，”俄克拉荷马大学法学教授迈克尔·史密斯说道。
在本任期目前已作出裁决的四起案件中，最高法院仅在其中一起案件中支持了第五巡回法院的裁决。预计最高法院将在下个月底前裁决的两起来自第五巡回法院的重要案件，涉及对其两项裁决的上诉：一是宣布包括大麻在内的非法毒品使用者拥有枪支的联邦禁令违宪，二是对邮寄选票施加限制。
“主权特权”
在当前的堕胎药案件中，第五巡回法院阻止了拜登政府2023年美国食品和药物管理局的一项规定，该规定允许通过远程医疗开具该药物处方并邮寄配送。
由特朗普任命的美国巡回法官凯尔·邓肯在该裁决中写道，FDA的政策可能缺乏科学依据，并且破坏了路易斯安那州在最高法院推翻1973年罗伊诉韦德案先例后实施的堕胎禁令，该先例曾使堕胎在全国范围内合法化。
“一旦失去保护未出生生命的这项主权特权，就无法通过法律救济重新获得，”邓肯写道。
米非司酮的制造商紧急向最高法院提起上诉，最高法院迅速暂停了第五巡回法院的裁决。
2024年，最高法院还以一致裁决推翻了第五巡回法院限制米非司酮获取的裁决，认为提起该药物法律挑战的反堕胎组织和医生缺乏提起诉讼所需的法律资格。
2023年，第五巡回法院宣布一项禁止受家庭暴力限制令约束者拥有枪支的联邦法律违宪。次年，最高法院推翻了该裁决，该裁决由特朗普任命的美国巡回法官科里·威尔逊撰写。
2024年，最高法院还推翻了威尔逊撰写的另一项第五巡回法院裁决，该裁决宣布美国消费者金融保护局的资金机制违宪。
“诋毁与毁灭”
更多源自第五巡回法院的重大案件似乎正前往最高法院。
美国公民自由联盟已誓言就第五巡回法院4月的一项裁决提起上诉，该裁决维持了得克萨斯州一项要求公立学校在教室展示圣经《十诫》的法律，此案正在检验政教分离原则。
这项以9票对7票通过的裁决也是由邓肯撰写的，得到了他在第五巡回法院的所有特朗普任命的同事的支持，包括美国巡回法官詹姆斯·何和安德鲁·奥尔德姆。如果特朗普获得再次任命大法官的机会，这三人都被认为是最高法院大法官的潜在候选人。
在4月的一次演讲中，何为支持原旨主义的法官进行了辩护，原旨主义是保守派青睐的一种法律哲学，旨在根据宪法文本在起草时的理解来解释美国宪法。
何表示，原旨主义法官在作出“文化精英”不认可的裁决时会“被诋毁与毁灭”。何还表示，“对我们中的许多人来说，做受欢迎的事往往比做正确的事更容易。”
“法官们不必害怕被喝倒彩，”何说道。
内特·雷蒙德在波士顿报道；大卫·巴里奥、艾米·史蒂文斯和威尔·邓汉姆编辑
In the US South, an appeals court leans farther right than the Supreme Court
2026-05-17 10:03:50 UTC / Reuters
By Nate Raymond
May 17, 2026 10:03 AM UTC Updated 1 hour ago
[1/3]The John Minor Wisdom United States Court of Appeals Building stands in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
- Summary
- 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in the spotlight
- New Orleans-based court known for conservative rulings
- Supreme Court froze 5th Circuit ruling on abortion pill
- Numerous appeals of 5th Circuit rulings reach high court
May 17 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to preserve mail access to the abortion pill mifepristone marked the latest time that the nation’s top judicial body has reined in an even more right-leaning appeals court, one nestled in the American South.
The Supreme Court on Thursday put on hold a May 1 ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had blocked – albeit briefly – mifepristone from being prescribed through telemedicine and dispensed by mail. Access to mifepristone has been a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars since the Supreme Court in 2022 allowed states to ban abortion.
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The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, has moved U.S. law dramatically rightward in recent years. But the 5th Circuit’s rulings in several key cases have gone beyond what even this conservative Supreme Court will permit, including twice on the abortion pill.
‘PUSH THE JURISPRUDENTIAL ENVELOPE’
“The 5th Circuit has been willing in the past decade to push the jurisprudential envelope on social issues pretty heavily towards the political conservative side,” said law professor Sally Brown Richardson of Tulane University Law School in New Orleans.
That trend, Richardson said, has been reflected in the sheer number of appeals of 5th Circuit rulings that the Supreme Court has elected to hear.
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The 5th Circuit is one of the 12 regional U.S. appeals courts, all one step below the Supreme Court. It hears cases from Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, three deeply conservative Southern states. Twelve of its 17 judges were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by Donald Trump.
The 5th Circuit has become a favored destination for conservatives, including activists and Republican politicians, seeking to advance their agenda. It has issued major decisions on issues such as abortion, gun rights and religious liberty, while handing policy setbacks to Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden including on immigration policies.
In its Thursday action halting the 5th Circuit’s ruling on the abortion pill while a lawsuit by Republican-led Louisiana seeking to curtail access to the medication proceeds, the Supreme Court issued a brief and unsigned order that did not explain its reasoning. Just two of its six conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, publicly dissented.
The 5th Circuit’s rulings often are appealed to the Supreme Court by liberal interests. Appeals of 5th Circuit rulings have made up a disproportionate number of cases heard by the Supreme Court in recent years.
During its current nine-month 2025-2026 term, the Supreme Court has heard 10 cases arising from the 5th Circuit, more than from any of the other federal appeals courts.
The same was true of its 2024-2025 term, with 13 cases from the 5th Circuit. The Supreme Court reversed the 5th Circuit in 10 of those cases, according to data collected by the SCOTUSblog website.
“You have several examples of cases where the Supreme Court uses the 5th Circuit to pass itself off as maybe more balanced or moderate,” University of Oklahoma law professor Michael Smith said.
In four cases decided so far this term, the Supreme Court has upheld 5th Circuit rulings in only one of them. Two important cases from the 5th Circuit that are expected to be decided by the Supreme Court by the end of next month include appeals of its decisions that declared unconstitutional a federal ban on users of illegal drugs including marijuana from owning guns and that placed limits on mail-in ballots.
‘SOVEREIGN PREROGATIVE’
In the current abortion-pill case, the 5th Circuit had blocked a 2023 Biden-era U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation that has allowed the drug to be prescribed through telemedicine and dispensed by mail.
Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan wrote in that decision that the FDA’s policy likely lacked a scientific basis and undermined Louisiana’s abortion ban implemented after the Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade precedent that had legalized the procedure nationwide.
“Once lost, that sovereign prerogative of protecting unborn life cannot be regained by legal remedy,” Duncan wrote.
Manufacturers of mifepristone appealed to the Supreme Court on an emergency basis, and it swiftly paused the 5th Circuit ruling.
In 2024, the Supreme Court also overturned, in a unanimous decision, a 5th Circuit ruling that had curtailed access to mifepristone, finding that the anti-abortion groups and doctors who brought a legal challenge to the pill lacked the necessary legal standing to pursue the case.
In 2023, the 5th Circuit declared unconstitutional a federal law that criminalizes firearm ownership for people under domestic violence restraining orders. The following year, the Supreme Court reversed that decision, which had been written by Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Cory Wilson.
The Supreme Court in 2024 reversed another 5th Circuit ruling that Wilson authored that had declared the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding mechanism unconstitutional.
‘DISPARAGED AND DESTROYED’
More major cases arising from the 5th Circuit appear headed to the Supreme Court.
The American Civil Liberties Union has vowed to appeal the 5th Circuit’s April ruling that upheld a Texas law requiring public schools to display the biblical Ten Commandments in classrooms in a case testing the principle of separation of church and state.
That 9-7 decision was also written by Duncan and joined by all of his fellow Trump appointees on the 5th Circuit, including U.S. Circuit Judges James Ho and Andrew Oldham. All three are considered possible Supreme Court nominees if Trump gets to make another appointment.
In a speech in April, Ho defended judges who embrace originalism, a legal philosophy favored by conservatives that seeks to interpret the U.S. Constitution based on how its text was understood at the time of its drafting.
Ho said originalist judges are “disparaged and destroyed” when they issue rulings disfavored by “cultural elites.” Ho also said “that it is too often, for too many of us, easier to do what is popular than to do what is right.”
“Judges must not be afraid of being booed,” Ho said.
Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by David Bario, Amy Stevens and Will Dunham
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