A reasonable supreme court? Hardly. Don’t be fooled by this extremist establishment | Moira Donegan

Recent stay on the abortion pill ban is a contest between conservative institutionalists and ideologues on the court

In a way, Matthew Kacsmaryk - the Trump-appointed federal district court judge in Amarillo, Texas, who issued a sprawling and aggressive injunction on 7 April that would have removed the abortion drug mifepristone from the market - did the supreme court's conservative majority a big favor: he made them look reasonable by comparison.

On Friday, after days of anxious waiting for abortion providers, the pharmaceutical industry and American women, the supreme court declined to allow Kacsmaryk's stay - and another, also dramatic ruling from the fifth circuit court of appeals - to go into effect. The court that destroyed the abortion right last year thereby preserved the availability of the most common abortion method - at least in the dwindling number of states where abortion remains legal at all.