Justice Neil Gorsuch is not pleased with judges setting nationwide policy. But how common is it?

Washington — When the Supreme Court heard arguments in two high-stakes, separate cases last month, Justice Neil Gorsuch raised concerns about how both disputes arrived at the court.

The cases — one involving the Biden administration's communications with social media companies and the other, the accessibility of a commonly used abortion pill — landed before the justices after federal district courts issued nationwide orders that blocked federal agencies from taking certain actions.

In the social media case, a Louisiana judge barred certain White House and administration officials from communicating with social media companies. In the abortion case, a Texas judge suspended the Food and Drug Administration's 2000 approval of the drug mifepristone — it was later reversed by a federal appellate court — and blocked a series of actions taken by the agency that made the drug easier to obtain.