Economics - U.S. Government Final Exam
This is a take-home, open-book final exam. Follow instructions carefully and submit no later than the due date stated in your class email. The exam is worth 25 percent of your semester grade. You will need to do Internet research to complete the assignment.
Final Exam: Roe v. Wade (1973) and the Fourteenth Amendment "right to privacy"
Final Exam: Roe v. Wade (1973) and the Fourteenth Amendment "right to privacy"
Final Exam: Roe v. Wade (1973) and the modern "right to privacy"
Instructions:
Probably the most well-known, landmark case on the "right to privacy" is Roe v. Wade (1973) - which legalized abortion in the United States. Research the case, read it, and prepare a 2-page brief on Roe v. Wade using 11-pt font and 1.15 spacing.
Use this format:
Instructions:
Probably the most well-known, landmark case on the "right to privacy" is Roe v. Wade (1973) - which legalized abortion in the United States. Research the case, read it, and prepare a 2-page brief on Roe v. Wade using 11-pt font and 1.15 spacing.
Use this format:
- Title and year of the case, as in: "___________ vs. __________, 1973"
- Facts of the case - explain the background
- Issues or Questions of Law - 14th Amendment, but try to be specific
- Decision - include the "Three Trimester" approach
- Reasoning (include the reasoning in the "dissent" written by Justice Rehnquist - which is in some ways even more interesting than the majority opinion)
- Optional: Whatever happened to Norma McCorvey? You may include a brief summary of Norma McCorvey - the actual Jane Roe in the case - who switched sides and became a prominent Pro-Life advocate until her recent death in 2017.
Background:
In the 1960's, the U.S. Supreme Court found a fundamental "right to privacy" in the Fourteenth Amendment in the landmark contraceptives case, Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) - Justice Douglas finding a "zone of privacy" that forbade the government from interfering in marital relations. Eight years later, the same reasoning in Griswold was used in the landmark case Roe v. Wade (1973) to legalize the practice of abortion - Justice Blackmun declaring that the "right to privacy.... is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." In doing so, the Court had to conclude that a fetus is not a "person" within the meaning of the 14th Amendment (remember... the 14th Amendment says, "nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property...")
In Roe v. Wade, the Court divided the thirty-six weeks of pregnancy into three (3) twelve-week semesters and ruled as follows:
In the 1960's, the U.S. Supreme Court found a fundamental "right to privacy" in the Fourteenth Amendment in the landmark contraceptives case, Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) - Justice Douglas finding a "zone of privacy" that forbade the government from interfering in marital relations. Eight years later, the same reasoning in Griswold was used in the landmark case Roe v. Wade (1973) to legalize the practice of abortion - Justice Blackmun declaring that the "right to privacy.... is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." In doing so, the Court had to conclude that a fetus is not a "person" within the meaning of the 14th Amendment (remember... the 14th Amendment says, "nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property...")
In Roe v. Wade, the Court divided the thirty-six weeks of pregnancy into three (3) twelve-week semesters and ruled as follows:
- First Trimester: A state cannot restrict abortion
- Second Trimester: A state can regulate abortion
- Third Trimester: Abortion is prohibited except in certain cases
Justice Rehnquist (appointed by President Nixon) wrote the dissenting opinion for the Court - which in some ways is more interesting to read than the majority opinion written by Blackmun (appointed by President Roosevelt).
There are bookshelves full of criticisms of the decision in Roe v. Wade. Here are a few...
There are bookshelves full of criticisms of the decision in Roe v. Wade. Here are a few...
- If there is no agreement upon when life begins, the Supreme Court should have deferred to the states (in this case Texas) to reach their own judgments on the issue, which would have resulted in easy access to abortion in some states, and little-to-no access in other states. This would have reduced the intense political firestorm created (and still with us today).
- The Supreme Court has no authority to create values and rights that have no textual connection to the Constitution (i.e. that are not even mentioned in the Constitution).
- Rehnquist called it, "an exercise of raw judicial power,... an improvident (thoughtless) and extravagant exercise of the power of" the Court.