The Laws And Actions Constitutional Or Unconstitutional

Norma McCorvey who was the plaintiff took on “Jane Roe” as her alias to protect her real identity. The case was originally filed on Roe’s behalf but it was transformed into a class action suit so that McCorvey could represent all pregnant women. The defendant was Henry B. Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas. Roe had two major hurdles to get over:

There were several appearances in court for this case, which resulted in three rulings, the last one being in the Supreme Court. The Dallas Texas court threw out the case on the conclusion that the plaintiffs had no right to sue. Then Roe's lawyers went to their first appeals court, which ruled on June 17, 1970 that the Does had no right to sue but Jane Roe and Dr. Hallford had a reasonable case with the right to sue.

What was the court’s decision in the case? What reason did they give? What landmark case did they cite?

When Roe v. Wade reached the Supreme Court, it received great interest from all over the country. On December 13, 1971 the case was first argued in front of the judges, but on this day only seven judges were present. The seven judges present decided that this case was so important that the case needed to be reargued when the two new judges were present in the Court. On October 10, 1972 the lawyers repeated their arguments to all 9 of the Supreme Court judges and on January 22, 1973 the decision was made (Brannen and Hanes, 2001).

Jane Roe was single and pregnant woman who lived in Texas in 1970. Jane Roe wanted to have an abortion but it was against the law in Texas. Unless the mother had problems during her pregnancies then she could possibly have an abortion. The abortion law surfaced in a few states, so some women traveled to states where the law wasn’t effective yet so they could get the medical attention they wanted.

Undeterred, Weddington and Coffee appealed the decision and took it to the highest of legal levels; the Supreme Court. The Roe vs. Wade decision was first argued in December 1971, and had been before the Supreme Court for over a year. Although this decision would later be intensely analyzed and debated, little attention was brought upon the case at the time. Chief Justice Burger opened the Court's oral arguments, and each side had only thirty minutes to present their case and answer questions. Sarah Weddington argued that abortion needed to be legalized beyond in the case where a woman's life is threatened; the physiological and psychological harms to the mother also warranted an abortion, if she chose.

Roe v. Wade remains one of the most prominent cases regarding abortion in the U.S due to the fact it was so controversial and impacted the lives of many american woman. The case transpired in Texas, a state which outlawed any form of abortion unless a mother's health became endangered. Norma McCorvey, famously known as Jane Roe, became pregnant for a second time with a child she was unable to care for, she seeked a form of legal abortion in Texas with no luck which lead her to two lawyers who could help bring a lawsuit to assist women in obtaining a legal means for abortion. In the case they used the name Jane Roe to protect her identity and were challenging an attorney from Dallas County Texas, Henry Wade. The case came before the supreme court in 1973, in which the court decision ruled 7 to 2 for abortion to be legal due to the 14th amendment as well as the right to

Alternatively, McCorvey’s friends encouragingly suggested she lie and say that her pregnancy was the result of her being raped. McCorvey was not able to provide evidence of which would prove her claim of rape to be true so she was not granted the right to abort her fetus. She then was left with a limitation of options, one being an illegal abortion clinic that she soon found out had been shut down by the police, and the other option being an old abandoned building where McCorvey stated "dirty instruments were scattered around the room, and there was dried blood on the floor.” McCorvey believed it was against the constitutional rights of american citizens to restrict the rights of abortion. These restricting laws were believes by many women to trap them into unfavorable alternatives such as self abortion or abortions performed by unlicensed beings with unsanitary surroundings and equipment. Desperate, McCorvey agreed to participate in a lawsuit against Henry Wade in efforts to make a difference for women around the world with the hopes of retaining her anonymity. An article on encyclopedia.com concerning the Roe v Wade case and it’s background states, “McCorvey chose to remain anonymous for several reasons: she feared publicity would hurt her five-year-old daughter, her parents were against abortion, and she had lied about being raped” (p.9) thus Norma McCorvey was known as Jane Roe in the now infamous case of as Roe v.

1) What were the legal issues in this case? What did the appeals court decide?

A landmark case in United States Law and the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States,

The Chief Justice that presided over this case was C.J. Rehnquist, the other presiding Justices were J. O'Connor, J. Stevens, J. Souter, J. Breyer, JJ. Thomas, J. Kennedy, J. Scalia, and JJ. Ginsburg. Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion over the case with Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas filed concurring opinions. Whereas, Justices Breyer, Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg filed a dissenting opinion. Before I go into the opinion that Rehnquist delivered I would like to go in to some of the opinions that the other Justices' had stated as to their dissenting opinions.

Reasoning- The Supreme Court’s decision was split and provided various points of view on the issues just like the American population and some sections are still being challenged today. Chief Justice Roberts was joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayer, and Kagan to form the opinion of the court on this case. However, there are sections where Justices felt split on the opinion. Due to this reason, there is a detailed explanation of which

Supreme court (Judiciary)- During the federalist era the judiciary was considered as the weakest of the three branches with “no influence over either the sword or purse”.(Hamilton) But over a period of time the judiciary has strengthened its position as far as being a protector of constitutional rights. For example Marbury vs. Madison was a landmark case in which the judiciary defined a clear boundary between the executive and itself. It termed a law passed by government unconstitutional. Although it could not directly influence laws it’s judgment’s in the slavery case Dredd Scott vs. Sanford (1857) paved the way for the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments in the constitution written specifically to overturn the decision of giving people the right to own slaves.

The United States Constitution lays out the structure and powers of our nation and acts as the guide to all future legislation and political decisions in our country. Power is divided in this constitution among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches—this judicial branch is the focus here. The supreme court is meant to interpret the constitution and limit the powers of the executive and legislative branches. Its power enumerated in the constitution is judicial review, where the supreme court decides which laws are constitutional or unconstitutional. Although this seems quite simple given a detailed constitution of powers and rights, the document and politics surrounding it are incredibly nuanced, as noted by Professor Wralstad Ulmschneider

In essence, Montesquieu states that the three organs of government – the executive, legislature and judiciary – should each have a discrete and defined area of power and that there should be a clear demarcation of functions between them: this is true ‘separation of powers’.