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Supreme Court of the United States

University of Richmond

Roe v. Wade

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Roe And The Original Meaning Of The Thirteenth Amendment, Kurt T. Lash Jan 2023

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.


Change And Continuity On The Supreme Court: Conversations With Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Philippa Strum Jan 2000

Change And Continuity On The Supreme Court: Conversations With Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Philippa Strum

University of Richmond Law Review

Justice Harry A. Blackmun used to enjoy telling a story about Supreme Court conferences during the Court's 1970 term, his first on the Court. Warren Burger was ChiefJustice; Hugo Black was the most senior Justice. Court protocol, of course, is that the Chief Justice begins the discussion of each case, the most senior Justice speaks second, and the floor goes in turn to each of the other Justices according to descending seniority. Chief Justice Burger would present a case by laying out the issues involved as he saw them and the decision he believed the Court should reach. Then he …


Leaving The Door Ajar: The Supreme Court And Assisted Suicide, Melvin I. Urofsky Jan 1998

Leaving The Door Ajar: The Supreme Court And Assisted Suicide, Melvin I. Urofsky

University of Richmond Law Review

In June, 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that a constitutional right to assisted suicide exists in neither the Due Process nor the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. But while a federal right does not exist, the Court made it quite clear that the states had ample leeway in which to fashion law on this issue; moreover, the concurring opinions of five Justices strongly implied that, should the states enact legislation that would severely limit end-of-life choices, the Supreme Court would revisit the issue. Far from slamming the door shut on assisted suicide, the Court left it more than …


Judiciary: Know Thy Place, Thomas L. Jipping Jan 1992

Judiciary: Know Thy Place, Thomas L. Jipping

University of Richmond Law Review

Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist No.78 that the judiciary "has no influence over ... the purse."' Yet in Missouri v. Jenkins, the Supreme Court approved indirect judicial taxation. Hamilton wrote that the judiciary "will always be the least dangerous" and "beyond comparison the weakest" branch of government. Yet in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court created out of nothing a right to choose abortion, invalidated the abortion laws of all fifty states developed over more than a century, and shut millions of Americans out of the process of developing public policy on this important political issue. Hamilton wrote that …


In Defense Of A Principled Judiciary, Edward E. Mcateer Jan 1992

In Defense Of A Principled Judiciary, Edward E. Mcateer

University of Richmond Law Review

For decades, the justices themselves undermined the honor which ought to be afforded the third branch of the federal government as they regularly exceeded the proper, limited but vitally important role they ought to play. October term after October term, the justices acted as a permanent constitutional convention, disrupting legislative accommodations and settled precedent with regularity.


Conservative Supreme Court: Its Impact On Traditional Values, Donald E. Wildman, Benjamin W. Bull Jan 1992

Conservative Supreme Court: Its Impact On Traditional Values, Donald E. Wildman, Benjamin W. Bull

University of Richmond Law Review

Most court watchers agree that the changing composition of the Supreme Court will ineluctably favor the interests of traditional values organizations like the American Family Association. The next decade will surely see the Court return to a more balanced approach in line with the preservation of family values. Certainly some will characterize the new Court as more conservative. To the extent that it will emphasize core principles in the Constitution as the bedrock from which it must proceed, it will be conservative. Yet this is simply a return of the Court to its intended function: interpretation and application of law …


Balancing The Federal Judiciary, Anne Bryant Jan 1992

Balancing The Federal Judiciary, Anne Bryant

University of Richmond Law Review

Since the American Association of University Women first published the associational brief "Balancing the Federal Judiciary" in 1988, two new Associate Justices (David Souter and Clarence Thomas) have joined the Supreme Court. The Court has continued to chip away at the rights of women and minorities, with damaging decisions in areas such as reproductive rights (e.g., Webster v. Reproductive Health Services) and employment discrimination(e.g., Wards Cove Packing Company v. Atonio). With a conservative majority in place on the Supreme Court until well into the next century and Reagan and Bush appointees comprising more than half of the nation's federal judges, …


A Social-Conservative Comment On The New Supreme Court, Gary L. Bauer Jan 1992

A Social-Conservative Comment On The New Supreme Court, Gary L. Bauer

University of Richmond Law Review

I recall seeing a column, not long ago, which referred to the Supreme Court as increasingly "a right-wing playground." Liberal groups may be able to raise funds off this impression, but if conservatives rely on it, they are in for a rude awakening when the gavel falls.


Mr. Justice Powell's Standing, Gary C. Leedes Jan 1977

Mr. Justice Powell's Standing, Gary C. Leedes

University of Richmond Law Review

Some may lament the results of Mr. Justice Powell's attempts to clarify the law of standing. Indeed, public interest lawyers who advocate granting standing on a surrogate basis to individuals who are members of a large unorganized class of diffuse interests have cause to complain about a return to a more orthodox conception of standing. However, Mr. Justice Powell has a different outlook, viz., in a democratic society, a federal court is not necessarily an appropriate or the most effective institution to redress the grievances of people upset by alleged lawless government action.