ENGLISH TUTORIAL: SELECT a LANDMARK CASE that HAS CALLED YOUR ATTENTION. A woman's choice whether to have an abortion is protected by her right to privacy. Justices Stewart, Burger and Douglas wrote concurring opinions. Justices White and Rehnquist dissented.
ENGLISH TUTORIAL: SELECT a LANDMARK CASE that HAS CALLED YOUR ATTENTION. A woman's choice whether to have an abortion is protected by her right to privacy. Justices Stewart, Burger and Douglas wrote concurring opinions. Justices White and Rehnquist dissented.
ENGLISH TUTORIAL: SELECT a LANDMARK CASE that HAS CALLED YOUR ATTENTION. A woman's choice whether to have an abortion is protected by her right to privacy. Justices Stewart, Burger and Douglas wrote concurring opinions. Justices White and Rehnquist dissented.
ENGLISH TUTORIAL 1.- INVESTIGATE IN LAW LIBRARIES AND/OR INTERNET AND SELECT A LANDMARK CASE THAT HAS CALLED YOUR ATTENTION. THEN DO THE FOLLOWING: I. II.
READ THE CASE THOROUGHLY
IN 5 PAGES PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION: 1. NAME OF THE CASE: Roe v. Wade. Abortion, Right to Privacy. 2. IDENTIFY THE MEMBERS OF THE SUPREME COURT THAT DECIDED THE CASE: -
Majority: Harry A. Blackmun (for the Court), William J. Brennan,
Lewis F. Powell Jr., Thurgood Marshall.
Concurring: Warren Burger, William Orville Douglas, Potter Stewart.
Dissenting: William H. Rehnquist, Byron White.
3. POINT OUT THE IDEOLOGY OF EACH OF THE JUDGES OF
THE SUPREME COURT The Supreme Court decided in favor of Roe in a 7-2 decision. Justice Blackmun wrote the opinion for the majority, which recognized that a womans choice whether to have an abortion is protected by her right to privacy. Justices Stewart, Burger and Douglas wrote concurring opinions. Justices White and Rehnquist dissented. The majority determined that a womans right to decide whether to have an abortion involved the question of whether the Constitution protected a right to privacy. The justices answered this question by asserting that the
Name: Jalitza Hurtado Snchez
Course: VII A Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits states from depriv[ing] any person of liberty without due process of law, protected a fundamental right to privacy. Further, after considerable discussion of the laws historical lack of recognition of rights of a fetus, the justices concluded the word person, as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn. The right of a woman to choose to have an abortion fell within this fundamental right to privacy, and was protected by the Constitution. A womans right to choose to have an abortion was not considered an absolute right. The Court stated that government restrictions on a womans right to choose were subject to the highest standard of review, that of strict scrutiny. This level of review requires that in order to be enforceable, a government regulation of this right must be shown to be narrowly tailored to a meet a compelling state interest. The justices noted that states did have some legitimate interests in regulating or prohibiting abortions. The first interest was the protection of the health of the mother from the dangers of abortion procedures; the second was the protection of the life of the fetus. While these interests were not very strong in the early stages of pregnancy, they became stronger (more compelling) in the later stages of the pregnancy. Striking a balance between a womans right to privacy and a states interests, the Court set up a framework laying out when states could regulate and even prohibit abortions. According to the framework, in the first trimester (the first three months of the pregnancy), a womans right to privacy surrounding the choice to have an abortion outweighed a states interests in regulating this decision. In the first trimester, having an abortion does not pose a grave danger to the life and health of the mother, and the fetus is still undeveloped. The states interests are not yet compelling, so it cannot interfere with a womans right to privacy by regulating or prohibiting her from having an abortion during the first trimester. During the second trimester, the states interests become more compelling as the danger of complications increases and the fetus becomes more developed. During this stage, it may regulate, but not prohibit abortions, as long as the regulations are aimed at protecting the
Name: Jalitza Hurtado Snchez
Course: VII A health of the mother. During the third trimester, the danger to the womans health becomes the greatest and fetal development nears completion. In the final trimester the states interests in protecting the health of the mother and in protecting the life of the fetus become their most compelling. The state may regulate or even prohibit abortions during this stage, as long as there is an exception for abortions necessary to preserve the life and health of the mother. In his dissenting opinion, Justice Rehnquist argued that the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment did not intend for it to protect a right of privacy, a right which they did not recognize, and that they definitely did not intend for it to protect a womans decision to have an abortion. Justice Rehnquist further argued that the only right to privacy is that which is protected by the Fourth Amendments prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures. Finally, he concluded that because this issue required a careful balance of the interests of the woman against the interests of the state, it was not an appropriate decision for the Court to make, but instead was a question that should have been left up to state legislatures to resolve. 4. BACKGROUND OF THE CASE Since the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, the legal, moral, and political controversy surrounding the abortion issue has polarized the American public. Two campsone hailing Roe as a victory for choice, the other arguing that the decision deprives the unborn child of its right to lifesquared off in the wake of the Court's decision. Their protracted political battle continues today. The deep political divisions that the case created, or revealed, reflect not only conflicting social and moral views, but conflicting views of the law as well. The case pitted two accepted doctrines against one anotherthe individual's right to privacy and the compelling and overriding interest of a State. Roe v. Wade sought an extension of the right to privacy, which the Court explicitly recognized for the first time in the case Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965. In that case, family counselors in Connecticut challenged a State law forbidding the use of any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception. In
Name: Jalitza Hurtado Snchez
Course: VII A Griswold, the Court decided that there was a right of privacy implied by the Bill of Rights. It ruled that the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments together create a right of marital privacy. 5. SUMMARY OF THE FACTS OF THE CASE Roe, a Texas resident, sought to terminate her pregnancy by abortion. Texas law prohibited abortions except to save the pregnant woman's life. After granting certiorari, the Court heard arguments twice. The first time, Roe's attorney -- Sarah Weddington -- could not locate the constitutional hook of her argument for Justice Potter Stewart. Her opponent -- Jay Floyd -misfired from the start. Weddington sharpened her constitutional argument in the second round. Her new opponent -- Robert Flowers -- came under strong questioning from Justices Potter Stewart and Thurgood Marshall. 6. ISSUE IN CONTROVERSY This case involved the right of privacy as implied by Amendments 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, and 14 versus the police power of the States. Did States have a compelling and overriding interest in regulating the health, safety, and morals of the community? Was there an area of personal, marital, familial, and sexual privacy protected by the Bill of Rights? Was the Texas law an unreasonable invasion of privacy, or was it a reasonable exercise of the police power? Were women permitted to terminate pregnancies at will, or were fetuses persons with rights to be protected by the State? 7. DECISION OF THE COURT By a vote of 7-2, with Justices White and Rehnquist in dissent, the Court agreed with Roe and upheld her right to terminate a pregnancy in the first trimester (90 days). The Court observed that Section 1 of the 14th Amendment contained three references to person. In his majority opinion, Justice Blackmun noted that, for nearly all such references in the Constitution, use of the word is such that it has application only postnatally. None indicates, with any assurance, that it has any possible prenatal application.
Name: Jalitza Hurtado Snchez
Course: VII A Blackmun's opinion carefully steered between the right to privacy and the question of compelling State interest. On the first point, he wrote, the majority of the justices do not agree with Texas that the State may override the rights of the pregnant woman that are at stake. On the other hand, the State does have an important and legitimate interest in protecting the potentiality of human life and in protecting the mother's health. Blackmun's decision revolved around the development of the fetus during pregnancy. He held that during the first trimester, or three months, of a pregnancy, the woman in consultation with her physician had an unrestricted right to an abortion. During the second trimester, States could regulate abortion to protect a woman's health. Finally, during the third trimester, the State's interest in protecting the potential life of the fetus was sufficient to justify severe restrictions. Approaching the matter of when life begins, Blackmun was clearly hesitant to commit the Court to any position. Controversial when announced, the Roe decision remains at the center of the legal controversy over the right to privacy versus the rights of the unborn. In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 1992, the Court reaffirmed Roe's central holding but abandoned its trimester structure. The Court permitted States to require informed consent, a 24-hour waiting period, and/or parental notification, but held that States may not place an undue burdenon a woman's right to an abortion. 8. HOW DOES THE DECISION OF THE COURT IMPACT THE SOCIETY? The decision gave a woman a right to abortion during the entirety of the pregnancy and defined different levels of state interest for regulating abortion in the second and third trimesters. The decisin was delivered on January 22, 1973. In a 7-2 opinopn, the Court decided that:
Name: Jalitza Hurtado Snchez
Course: VII A a) During the first trimester of pregnancy a woman could have an abortion on demand without interference from the state; b) During the second trimester the state could regulate abortions for safety but could not prohibit them entirely; and c) During the third trimester, the state could regulate or forbid all abortions except to sabe the life of the mother. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/410/113.html 2. http://www.streetlaw.org/en/Page/661/Summary_of_the_Decision 3. http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1971/1971_70_18 4. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/04/us/roe-v-wade-fast-facts/ 5. https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jrr02 6. http://www.infoplease.com/us/supreme-court/cases/ar35.html
Southern National Bank of North Carolina v. Federal Resources Corporation Kenyon Home Furnishings, LTD., and James W. Pearce Elizabeth Contogiannis Steve Palinkas, 911 F.2d 724, 4th Cir. (1990)