Law Commons^™

Gender Regrets: Banning Abortion And Gender-Affirming Care, Noa Ben-Asher, Margot J. Pollans

Utah Law Review

Conservative politicians, lawmakers, and media have generated a national moral panic about transgender children and youth that has resulted, as of early 2024, in restrictions or bans on GAC for minors in twenty-four states. In these bans and the advocacy around them gender-affirming care for minors is presented as harmful, ideological, unnecessary, and likely to lead to future regret. The role of regret in the movement to ban gender-affirming care parallels the role of regret in the ongoing conservative campaign to ban abortion. In the years between Roe v. Wade (1973) and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), politicians …

Caught In The Middle: Providing Obstetric Care When Pregnant Women Have Complications, Ellen Clayton, Luke Gatta

Utah Law Review

Physicians in abortion-restrictive states who care for pregnant women who become ill are facing new challenges as they try to meet their patients’ needs while avoiding criminal prosecution on the one hand or civil litigation if there is a bad outcome, especially when care is affected by the threat of vague statutes, on the other. All these legal actions will occur in the public eye. Unfortunately, the proposed changes to HIPAA do not protect against criminal prosecution when the medical exception for the woman’s health is at issue.

Two changes are needed. The first is amending the state statutes to …

Abortion, Citizenship, And The Right To Travel, Rebecca E. Zietlow

Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal

This article considers the changed landscape for abortion rights since the United States Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Before Dobbs, the right to choose an abortion was a fundamental right under federal law, enforceable against all state governments. After Dobbs, the scope of one’s right to choose an abortion depends on the state in which one lives, and if abortion is illegal in their home state, their right to travel to another state where abortion is legal. The right to travel is particularly important for workers who must live in an anti-abortion state because their …

Labor Law's Impact On The Post-Dobbs Workplace, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal

The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision has left many workers, especially in states with restrictive abortion-related laws, in a precarious position. Labor laws and unions, however, provide one avenue for providing these workers with more protections. Unions can demand bargaining to protect or expand health care, leave, and other terms of employment that give workers with means to obtain abortion-related care. Unions can also provide members legal defense and other support if they face prosecutions. Additionally, both union and non-union workers who make up the vast majority of workers in states with restrictive laws may have labor law protection for discussing …

Abortion Access: A Strain On The Most Vulnerable Women In Texas Post-Dobbs, Aleea Costilla

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Decoding Dobbs: A Typology To Better Understand The Roberts Court's Jurisprudence, Katie Yoder

Honors Projects

The U.S. Supreme Court first recognized Substantive Due Process (“SDP”) in the early twentieth century. In Lochner v. New York, the Court established that there are certain unenumerated rights that are implied by the Fourteenth Amendment.Though SDP originated in a case about worker’s rights and liberties, it quickly became relevant to many cases surrounding personal intimate decisions involving health, safety, marriage, sexual activity, and reproduction.Over the past 60 years, the Court relied upon SDP to justify expanding a fundamental right to privacy, liberty, and the right to medical decision making. Specifically, the court applied these concepts to allow for freedoms …

Unplanned Pregnancy As An Independent Risk Factor For Antepartum Si In A Post Roe Vs. Wade World, Rianna Mcnamee

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Abstract: The objective of this literature review is to determine whether unplanned pregnancy is an independent risk factor for developing antepartum SI. Background: The Supreme Court of the United States of America recently ruled that the constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion to its citizens. As of October 2023, twenty-one states had developed full or partial bans on abortion, resulting in millions of Americans residing in areas where terminating unplanned pregnancy is not a viable option. There is evidence that indicates antepartum suicidal ideation (SI) is higher than that of the general population, however …

The Post-Dobbs Reality: Privacy Expectations For Period-Tracking Apps In Criminal Abortion Prosecutions, Sophie L. Nelson

Pepperdine Law Review

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in June 2022 was met with waves of both support and criticism throughout the United States. Several states immediately implemented or began drafting trigger laws that criminalize seeking and providing an abortion. These laws prompted several period-tracking app companies to encrypt their users’ data to make it more difficult for the government to access period- and pregnancy-related information for criminal investigations. This Comment explores whether the Fourth Amendment and U.S. privacy statutes protect users of period-tracking apps from government surveillance. More specifically, this Comment argues that …

Symposium: Gender, Health & The Constitution: On The Constitutional Requirement For Adequate Prenatal Care Post-Dobbs, Ainslee Johnson-Brown

ConLawNOW

This Essay argues that state abortion statutes codifying government interests in the health and welfare of the unborn trigger a constitutional right to prenatal care where adequate medical care is constitutionally required in the penal system. It explores the healthcare mandates required by the U.S. Constitution in the era before the passage of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, specifically looking at abortion access and prenatal provisions in the penological system. It then dissects abortion-related legislation passed by various states in the wake of Dobbs—emphasizing language within the legislative findings that could trigger a constitutional obligation for prenatal …

Reproductive Rights And Felony Disenfranchisement: The New Frontier Of An Old Voter Suppression Tactic, Jessie Rubini

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Voter suppression and anti-abortion, anti-reproductive care efforts are mutually reinforcing, working together to diminish political participation, especially for women of color. I argue that politicians could use the Dobbs decision to further suppress Black voters, specifically Black women voters, by prosecuting abortions as felonies. The effect would be disenfranchisement of thousands of people. This Comment covers the connected histories of voting rights and abortion rights in America. The first section of this Comment will briefly cover the history of voting rights in America with a focus on racial discrimination. The second section will cover one voter suppression, felony disenfranchisement. Finally, …

Without Due Process Of Law: The Dobbs Decision And Its Cataclysmic Impact On The Substantive Due Process And Privacy Rights Of Ohio Women, Jacob Wenner

Journal of Law and Health

Since the overturning of prior abortion precedents in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, there has been a question on the minds of many women in this country: how will this decision affect me and my rights? As we have seen in the aftermath of Dobbs, many states have pushed for stringent anti-abortion measures seeking to undermine the foundation on which women’s reproductive freedom had been grounded on for decades. This includes right here in Ohio, where Republican lawmakers have advocated on numerous occasions for implementing laws seeking to limit abortion rights, including a 6-week abortion ban advocated …

Forced To Bear The Burden And Now The Children: The Dobbs Decision And Environmental Justice Communities, Mia Petrucci

Washington Journal of Social & Environmental Justice

No abstract provided.

Free Exercise, The Respect For Marriage Act, And Some Potential Surprises, Mark Strasser

Cleveland State Law Review

Congress recently passed the Respect for Marriage Act to assure that certain marriages would remain valid even if the Supreme Court were to overrule past precedent and hold that the Constitution does not protect the right to marry a partner of the same sex or of a different race. However, the Act, as written, may not offer protection for certain same-sex or interracial marriages and may open the door to the federal protection of plural marriages, congressional intent notwithstanding, because of the Court’s increasingly robust free exercise jurisprudence.

“I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”: A Lamentation On Dobbs V. Jackson’S Pernicious Impact On The Lives And Liberty Of Women, April L. Cherry

Cleveland State Law Review

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned nearly fifty years of precedent when it declared in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that abortion was not a fundamental right, and therefore it was not protected by the Fourteenth Amendment and substantive due process. In law school corridors and legal scholar circles, discussion of the Court’s evisceration of abortion rights focused on the corresponding changes in Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence and the Court’s outright dismissal of stare decisis. But in homes, hospitals, community centers, and workplaces, different conversations were happening. Conversations, mostly had by women, concerned the real-life consequences of overturning …

Charging Abortion, Milan Markovic

Faculty Scholarship

As long as Roe v. Wade remained good law, prosecutors could largely avoid the question of abortion. The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has now placed prosecutors at the forefront of the abortion wars. Some chief prosecutors in antiabortion states have pledged to not enforce antiabortion laws, whereas others are targeting even out-of-state providers. This post-Dobbs reality, wherein the ability to obtain an abortion depends not only on the politics of one’s state but also the policies of one’s local district attorney, has received minimal scrutiny from legal scholars.

Prosecutors have broad charging discretion, …

From Precedent To Policy: The Effects Of Dobbs On Detained Immigrant Youth, Ciera Phung-Marion

Washington Law Review

In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court released the historic decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, holding that the U.S. Constitution does not protect an individual’s right to an abortion. Dobbs overturned many cases, including J.D. v. Azar, which previously protected abortion rights for unaccompanied migrant youth in federal detention facilities. Post-Dobbs, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)—the agency responsible for caring for detained immigrant children—still protects abortion rights as part of its own internal policy. Without judicial precedent, however, this policy lacks the stability to truly protect the rights of the children in its …

Decreasing The United States’ Maternal Mortality Rate: Using Policies Of Other High-Income Countries As A Model, Leah Frattellone

Pace International Law Review

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries. This article focuses on policies the United States can implement to decrease the maternal mortality rate, with a focus on access to abortion, the standard of care for pregnant women and new mothers, access to healthcare, and family leave. This article also explores policies surrounding those areas in other high-income countries and analyzes the differences in both the actual policies and the outcomes of those policies. To effectively decrease the maternal mortality rate in the United States, policies from other high-income countries, with lower maternal mortality rates should …

Full Faith And Credit In The Post-Roe Era, Celia P. Janes

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, once again leaving the question of whether abortion should be legal to individual state legislatures. This decision allowed the Texas law known as S.B. 8, alternatively known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, to go into effect. The law allows private individuals to sue anyone who has performed or has aided and abetted the performance or inducement of an abortion in Texas. California responded to this law with Assembly Bill 2091, which prevents California state courts from issuing subpoenas arising under S.B. 8 and similar laws in other states. This Note addresses …

An Exegesis Of The Meaning Of Dobbs: Despotism, Servitude, & Forced Birth, Athena D. Mutua

Journal Articles

The Dobbs decision has been leaked. Gathered outside of New York City's St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, pro-choice protesters chant: "Not the church, not the state, the people must decide their fate."

A white man wearing a New York Fire Department sweatshirt and standing on the front steps responds: "l am the people, l am the people, l am the people, the people have decided, the court has decided, you lose . . . . You have no choice. Not your body, not your choice, your body is mine and you're having my baby."

Despicable but not unexpected,³ this man's comments …

Growing, Growing, Gone: How Dobbs Fundamentally Altered The Way Reproductive Freedom, Private And Professional Liability, And Constitutional Rights Will Be Analyzed In A Post–Roe America, Amanda J. Sharp

San Diego Law Review

This Note examines the Dobbs decision and its implications. Part II analyzes the history of abortion rights in the United States, including the role Dobbs played in overturning precedential cases. Part III describes the legal implications of Dobbs, including the status of abortion rights and how this decision altered the state of women’s healthcare. It then addresses Dobbs’ indirect implications, including its potential impacts on the foster care system, implied liability in healthcare professions, data privacy laws, and the employer-employee relationship. Part IV briefly proposes next steps that could be taken and concludes with a call to action.

Fair Notice And Criminalizing Abortions, Brian G. Slocum, Nadia Banteka

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

The principle of legality requires that individuals receive “fair notice” of conduct that is criminal. Courts enforce this fair notice requirement through various interpretive principles and practices, including the void-for- vagueness doctrine. The void-for-vagueness doctrine remains undertheorized, however, despite its centrality to the interpretation of criminal statutes. We offer a new theory of the void-for-vagueness doctrine that accounts for recent Supreme Court decisions. Specifically, we propose a scalar theory that fair notice is a matter of degree, dependent on various factors. We explore the implications of this theory for anti-abortion statutes post-Dobbs and explain why many of these statutes do …

The Mad Hatter’S Quip: Looking For Logic In The Independent State Legislature Theory, Nicholas Maggio, Foreword By Brendan Buschi

Touro Law Review

The Supreme Court is set to hear a case that threatens the bedrock of America’s democracy, and it is not clear how it will shake out. The cumbersomely named “Independent State Legislature Theory” is at the heart of the case Moore v. Harper, which is before the Supreme Court this term. The theory holds that state legislatures should be free from the ordinary bounds of state judicial review when engaged in matters that concern federal elections. Despite being defeated a myriad of times at the Supreme Court, the latest challenge stems from a legal battle over North Carolina’s redistricting maps. …

The State Of Our Republic: State Constitutions’ Role In Creating A More Perfect Union, Caroline Bullock

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis situates state constitutionalism in the modern context of federal constitutional paralysis. By tracing patterns of state constitutional development, we find that states were always the fundamental setting of democracy, and there has always been critical action happening at state legislatures, in state courts, and through state constitutional change. State constitutions provide an active means to achieve progress and protect rights not federally enshrined (and thus, endangered by the political process). The use of state constitutions to prescribe ways of life, protect individual and specialized rights, and to limit local governments has always occurred, but with the current federal …

Body. Freedom. Choice: Creating Artwork In Post-Roe America, Erin Sedra

MSU Graduate Theses

I knew from a young age that I never wanted children. Whenever I expressed my disinterest in motherhood, I was often met with bewilderment, disapproval, and hostility. The church I was raised in taught me that my value and worth as a woman directly correlated with the power of my birthing hips. This fundamentalist upbringing has significantly shaped my relationship with my femininity, my body, and my artwork. When I feel powerless, turning to my art gives me a sense of control and self-expression. This body of work began as a reaction to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and …

A Loophole In The Fourth Amendment: The Government's Unregulated Purchase Of Intimate Health Data, Rhea Bhatia

Washington Law Review Online

Companies use everyday applications and personal devices to collect deeply personal information about a user’s body and health. While this “intimate health data” includes seemingly innocuous information about fitness activities and basic vitals, it also includes extremely private information about the user’s health, such as chronic conditions and reproductive health. However, consumers have no established rights over the intimate health data shared on their devices. Believing that these technologies are created for their benefit, consumers hand over the most intimate aspects of their lives through health-related applications relying on the promise that their data will remain private. Today, the intimate …

Brief Of Amici Curiae In Support Of The United States: Moyle & Idaho V. United States, David S. Cohen, Greer Donley, Rachel Rebouché

Amici Briefs

This amicus brief, submitted to the Supreme Court in Moyle v. United States, argues that Moyle, and the impending circuit split surrounding it, is a symptom of a larger workability problem with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization framework. Dobbs is already proving, in its brief existence, to be unworkable, and must be overturned. In short order, the Dobbs ruling has ushered in an era of unprecedented legal and doctrinal chaos, precipitating a fury of disorienting legal battles across the country. The Dobbs framework has created destabilizing conflicts between federal and state authorities, as in the current …

Abortion And Affirmative Action: The Fragility Of Supreme Court Political Decision-Making, William E. Nelson

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

This Article shows, on the basis of new evidence, that the canonical case of Marbury v. Madison has been grossly misinterpreted and that as a result of the misinterpretation we cannot understand what is wrong with contemporary cases such as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.

The Article will proceed as follows. Because Marbury cannot be properly understood without understanding the eighteenth-century background against which it was decided, Part I will examine legal practices in colonial and post-Revolutionary America, focusing on cases in which judicial review emerged …

Adoption As Substitute For Abortion?, Malinda L. Seymore

University of Colorado Law Review

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Samuel Alito relied on adoption as part of the justification for holding that abortion is not constitutionally protected. First, he said, “[s]tates have increasingly adopted ‘safe haven’ laws, which generally allow women to drop off babies anonymously.” Second, “a woman who puts her newborn up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the baby will not find a suitable home.” Using adoption as an adequate substitute for abortion is a long-standing strategy for the antiabortion movement, but it is often embraced by pro-choice advocates as well. This position is supportable …

Facing The Music: How The Face Act Harms, Rather Than Helps, The Post-Dobbs Abortion Movement, Kyriaki "Kiki" Council

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice David Hackett Souter And The Right To Privacy, Scott P. Johnson

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.