Law Commons^™

Privacy: Pre- And Post-Dobbs, Rona Kaufman

Law Faculty Publications

The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to include a fundamental right to familial privacy. The exact contours of that right were developed by the Court from 1923 until 2015. In 2022, with its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the Supreme Court abruptly changed course and held that the right to terminate a pregnancy is no longer part of the right to privacy previously recognized by the Court. This essay seeks to place Dobbs in the context of the Court’s family privacy cases in an effort to understand the Court’s …

Roe And The Original Meaning Of The Thirteenth Amendment, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

The current debate over Roe v. Wade as a substantive due process right has prompted scholars to investigate alternative sources for a constitutional right to abortion. One approach argues that the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition on “slavery” and “involuntary servitude” prohibits the government from denying women the right to terminate a pregnancy. Scholars making this argument con-cede that the right to abortion was not the expected application of the Thirteenth Amendment but insist that a forced continued pregnancy falls within the original meaning of the Amendment’s terms.

Dobbs Is Not A Religion Case, Bruce Ledewitz

Law Faculty Publications

I was unhappy, but not surprised, to see Canopy Forum including Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that overruled Roe v. Wade, in a call for submissions under the rubric, “Law and Religion in Pressing Supreme Court Cases.” I was not surprised because, for years, many critics have labeled pro-life opposition to Roe a purely religious viewpoint. But there is nothing inherently religious about qualms concerning abortion, nor is there anything specifically religious in the Dobbs majority opinion.

The Court After Scalia, Kevin C. Walsh

Law Faculty Publications

In this editorial, Professor Walsh surveys the 2015-2016 U.S. Supreme Court term, with particular attention to the effects the late Justice Antonin Scalia's absence had on the Court's decisions.

When Choice Itself Hurts The Quality Of Life, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

“When Choice Itself Hurts the Quality of Life” (how the results of choice may be seen as the fault of the chooser), Human Life Review, vol. XLII, No. 4, Fall 2016. For a more extensive analysis, see "Her Choice, Her Problem: How Having a Choice Can Diminish Family Solidarity", International Journal of the Jurisprudence of the Family, 2 Intl. J. Jurisprudence Fam. 179 (2011)

How (Not) To Talk About Abortion, Meredith J. Harbach

Law Faculty Publications

In this essay, I aim to have a conversation about how we converse- how we talk-about abortion and related issues. In the process, I want to consider how we might come together to discover issues of shared commitment and values and transform the existing abortion debate. I begin with a review of some of the more notable abortion-related rhetoric during the 2012 Virginia General Assembly, and contrast that rhetoric with the discourse in my classroom. I then consider whether and how we might move forward together toward a more meaningful and productive dialogue on these issues.

Her Choice, Her Problem: How Having A Choice Can Diminish Family Solidarity, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores a little-noticed dimension of abortion and assisted suicide (or voluntary euthanasia): how choosing to reject those options can have a negative impact on the legally authorized choosers. Women who refuse abortion may be blamed for their choice by boyfriends, neighbors, employers, and others. Similarly, infirm or dying persons may find family and other caregivers upset by their refusal to agree to assisted suicide when voluntary death seems the sensible option. Finally, the author questions whether a life chosen as an option can ever have the dignity of a life simply accepted, i.e., whether the child a mother …

Los Grandes Rechazos De La Sentencia Roe V. Wade, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

: Quizás mayormente a causa del poder económico de los Estados Unidos, su alta jurisprudencia constitucional suele tener mucha influencia en otros países. En particular, la sentencia de la Corte Suprema norteamericana Roe v. Wade, que declaró un derecho al aborto durante todo el embarazo, puede conducir a la legalización del aborto a petición por los grandes tribunales de otras naciones. Pero antes de intentar de andar este surco abierto por la Corte estadounidense, los otros tribunales desearán saber que la sentencia ha sido rotundamente rechazada por fuentes bastante sorprendentes. El razonamiento de Roe ha sido rechazado por los peritos …

Abortion As Betrayal, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

Abortion is worse than ordinary murder, principally because it involves the betrayal of a dependent by a natural guardian. Furthermore, abortion is emblematic of wider lethal betrayals of radically dependent persons. All these betrayals are rationalized precisely by the victims’ lack of autonomy-based dignity. Christianity counters by affirming the concern and respect due to those who helplessly suffer worldly disdain.

Construccion Vs. Desarrollo: La Raiz De Nuestros Malentendidos Sobre El Principio De La Vida, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

Este ensayo argumenta que el fracaso de nuestros debates públicos sobre el aborto y la investigación destructora de embriones se debe, en gran parte, no a distintas valoraciones de la vida humana individual sino a distintas concepciones e intuiciones acerca del proceso de gestación. Un grupo lo trata como un proceso de construcción y el otro como un proceso de desarrollo. Se muestra que estos dos incompatibles modelos de reproducción explican las distintas posturas que por lo general se encuentran en los debates sobre la vida. Por último, se examinan las ventajas históricas, teóricas, e intuitivas de cada modelo.

This …

La Vida Considerada Como Cosa: Un Error Norteamericano Fundamental, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

El autor explica un error fundamental que puede subyacer a la aprobación, por el Tribunal Supremo norteamericano en el año 2000, del aborto durante el parto. Este error consiste en concebir la vida física como una mera cosa, como algo que puede existir sin que haya un ser humano que la viva. En cuanto al aborto, el error radica en la confusión entre desarrollo y construcción (del feto), confusión debida en parte a ciertas creencias medievales ya superadas por la ciencia moderna. En la segunda mitad del artículo, el autor sostiene que un error semejante puede proporcionar fácilmente un argumento …

The Priority Of Respect: How Our Common Humanity Can Ground Our Individual Dignity, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

In this essay, we notice that the priority of persons, the unbridgeable political gap between persons and mere things, corresponds to a special sort of moral and legal treatment for persons, namely, as irreplaceable individuals. Normative language that conflates the category of person with fungible kinds of being can thus appear to justify destroying and replacing human beings, just as we do with things. Lethal consequences may result, for example, from a common but improper extension of the word “value” to persons. The attitude and act called “respect” brings forth much more adequately than “value” the distinctively individual priority of …

Location And Life: How Stenberg V. Carhart Undercut Roe V. Wade, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Abortion And Women's Legal Personhood In Germany: A Contribution To The Feminist Theory Of The State, D. A. Jeremy Telman

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On Death And Dworkin: A Critique Of His Theory Of Inviolability, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Symposium On Religious Law: Roman Catholic, Islamic, And Jewish Treatment Of Familial Issues, Including Education, Abortion, In Vitro Fertilization, Prenuptial Agreements, Contraception, And Martial Fraud, Azizah Y. Al-Hibri

Law Faculty Publications

This symposium offers perspectives from three religious law traditions: Roman Catholicism, Islam, and Judaism. Each of the three legal traditions offers a comprehensive, normative system that translates doctrine into practice and religious values into concrete directives. While the place of theological law differs in the respective religious bodies, each body asserts a binding authority over its confessional members.

On The Strength Of Its Human Dignity: The Pro-Life 1993 Decision Of The German Constitutional Court, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Montana Fight Over Women's Rights, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Report of abortion protests that took place in various locations around Montana.

Intervention After Webster, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Webster v. Reproductive Health Services throws down the gauntlet on the "most politically divisive domestic legal issue of our time," imperiling women's progress in securing reproductive freedom and power in society. The battle over abortion rights is likely to splinter an already deeply divided country. After fierce fighting in many statehouses, some legislatures will pass statutes further restricting abortion. The major battleground, however, will quickly shift to the federal courts, where plaintiffs seeking to protect procreative freedom will challenge these measures. Judges, parties, and lawyers participating in this litigation will rigorously analyze the issues of "substance" that Webster and the …

New Constitutional And Penal Theory In Spanish Abortion Law, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Critique Of Abortion Rights, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The World As Reality, As Resource, And As Pretense, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.