Yesterday’s post was a reminder of this. Dobbs, v. Jackson Women’s Health Centeris before the Supreme Court and the litigants are in DobbsI believe the case poses the question, “Do you want to be a judge?” Roe V. Wade(1973). Casey v. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania(1992) should either be overruled or reaffirmed. Many Justices believe oral argument can be used as a guide. For judges and lawyers, RoeAnd CaseyAs a matter federal constitutional law, pregnant women are entitled to have abortions at the point when their fetuses become viable. Chief Justice Roberts argued for a more narrow interpretation. RoeAnd CaseyThey may give women equal access to abortions but they do not always allow them to reach the viability threshold. In this week’s article and in the forthcoming one, I argue against the reread of my exploratory interpretation. RoeAnd CaseyThe program rewrites these documents.
How does a lawyer determine if a interpretation of a precedent is fair? Today, that is the focus of my post. Here I will explain the concepts courts can rely on when they determine which parts of an older precedent are applicable to later cases. These concepts are applied to my case. Roe. This post will be my attempt to show two main points I intend to make this week. This is the judgment. RoeFour challenged abortion restrictions were declared unconstitutional and on their face unconstitutional. One ground for that decision was: A woman can elect to have an abortion. prima facieUp to the limit for fetal viability
A vocabulary is needed by courts to be able “read” or “rewrite” previous decisions. Judicial decisions can cause problems in any legal system. Judicial decisions in any legal system are legal because they have legal effects. Common law systems often consider judicial decisions law in the second sense. They justify and even require particular outcomes.
However, judicial decisions made in the early stages of a case may not be valid or required to result in similar cases later. Later cases might have facts that are different from earlier. Sometimes the facts of a case are different from those in previous cases. Sometimes several decisions from the past may be conflicting and might require different outcome in a case.
Anglo-American judicial system have created principles to deal with such problems. I will call this the law of precedents and judicial power. Law of precedents helps lawyers prioritise different sections from a reasoned judge’s opinion. This field of law allows judges and lawyers to identify the core parts of a judicial ruling from its peripheral components. The central parts include the court’s “judgment” and the “reasons for decision”—the propositions of law, or the conclusions about how the law applies on the facts, necessary to support the judgment. Peripheral parts are known as obiter dicta—Latin for “things said in passing.” Lawyers read a case when it is respected and they apply the reasons for its decision to similar cases. When a case is deemed to be substantially different than the reasons necessary for its decision, they “rewrite” it.
Most of the judicial definitions are for reasons for decision and judgments. dictaThey go around in circles, and rely on concepts that are as intuitive and general as “judgments”, and “reasons.” This is how it works: Cohens v. Virginia (1821), Chief Justice John Marshall observed for the Court that judicial opinions always contain “general expressions …. These opinions may not be used in every case. To contrast dictaMarshall assumed readers would know what a “general phrase” meant and whether or not it was relevant to the particular case. Similar, Seminole Tribe, v. FloridaChief Justice William Rehnquist, 1996. He contrasted the “well-established reasoning upon which [the Court]”mined the earlier decisions of it” obiter dicta.” Rehnquist assumed readers were aware of “earlier decision”, “well-established reason”[s]” dictaAll were. These definitions may seem circular, but they still hold together. The specific case’s “result” or “decision” is called a judgment. The “general expressions” and “well-established reasoning” are the reasons for a decision.[s]The following is required for the rendering of a judgement: dictaThe rationales and expressions that aren’t necessary for a decision. These definitions work surprisingly well when used in practice.
These definitions can be applied to cases involving constitutional abortion rights. I will show you how. RoeThe landmark federal case on abortion rights. I will begin by describing the law propositions with which RoeMost often, it is. RoeThe Constitution guarantees abortion rights. Federal court decisions that were lower in the chain of appeals supported by the Court, which declared that “the right to privacy, whatever its basis, is sufficiently broad to encompass an abortion decision”. According to the Court, privacy rights are found in “the idea of liberty as guaranteed in Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment” along with the penumbras of all other rights in the Bill of Rights. Roe A trimester framework was also proposed to facilitate this due process. The first trimester was the time that states were not allowed to restrict women’s right to choose abortion. The second trimester is when states can “regulate abortion procedures to the extent the regulation reasonably relate”.[d]To the protection and preservation of mother’s health.” And since “the ‘compelling’ point” for the state’s interest in fetal life “is at viability,” during the third trimester the state could prohibit abortions “except when … necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.” (That framework leaves important issues unresolved—especially how broad the exceptions are for maternal “life or health”—but it still shaped how federal courts came at abortion challenges while RoeThe dominant Court case regarding abortion rights was.
Not all these propositions are reasons to make a decision. RoeSome of them were dicta. What? Roe HeldAn inquiring attorney must start by reviewing the Court’s decision and the complaints. Roe filed suit against the District Attorney in her County, in her own name and for all other women in Texas. In her complaint, Roe claimed she was pregnant and that four Texas statutes made it illegal in Texas to do abortions. She asked for a declaratory judgement declaring those statutes unconstitutional. She prayed to the Supreme Court for a declaratory judgment. The court granted her request.
This background reveals the nature of the judgement. Roe: All four of the challenged statutes were declared inconstitutional. Unconstitutional statutes may not be used in any situation. Whatever reasons may be given for a declaratory judgement, they must be broad enough to support a declaration that Texas’ four penal statutes cannot be used against any person or to any Texas pregnancy.
The law had to support this judgment with multiple propositions. Proposition 1 consists in Roe‘s constitutional-right declaration. (1) consists of Roe‘s police powers specification. Proposition (3) is composed of Roe‘s overbreadth proposition. If you find these names clunky, I apologize. The names of these contestants sound a lot like the entries to one of those contests. These propositions will be my reference point for the week. Some shorthands.)
Proposition (1) is the starting point. Roe‘s constitutional-right declaration. This was a necessary condition for the Court to reach its decision. If the statutes of Texas were in violation of a right, they could not be declared unconstitutional by the Court. The Court finally found the right to do so in “the Due Process Clause, Fourteenth Amendment.”
Next, let’s look at proposition (2). This is the specification of police powers. All constitutional rights have limits. Every right could be subject to greater-priority rights, or state interest in certain contexts. States have the right to protect these rights and interests. Judicial review performs two functions when courts examine police power justifications of state laws that are subject to federal constitutional challenge. The federal right is evaluated to determine if the review has an effect on the law. The person who claims the federal right is able to have judicial reviews backhandedly determine the extent of that right and the limits it has.
RoeTwo early decisions were made to clarify the right it declared. It was recognized by the Court that states may, in the second quarter, regulate the qualifications of abortion providers and the conditions in which abortions are performed. This is to ensure maternal health. However, the Roe case did not mention these provisions about regulations for maternal health. dicta. Roe called for the repeal of the challenged statutes. They prohibited abortions that were not necessary to safeguard the health and safety of women in their wombs.
RoeAnother possible limitation to the constitution right was identified, the one that is related to fetuses’ life. Women’s right to choose abortions is limited if and when the lives of fetuses are given urgent priority. That limit was recognized by the Court Roe When it mentioned “the State’s legitimate and essential interest in possible life,” In the Court’s settlement, the state’s interest became “compelling”—meaning, it took priority higher than the interest justifying constitutional abortion rights—”at viability.” Und That The reason behind the decision was discussed. Roe. The Texas statutes prohibit most abortions. Therefore, the Court had to decide when these prohibitions were helping states achieve their goals and when they weren’t. The Court settled that fetal viability was the point at which the Constitution’s right to choose abortion is overridden by the State’s interest in potential fetal lives.
Combine the police power specification with RoeYou have the right to declare your rights, so you can make the decision. Roe: Primo facieFederal substantive due process allows a woman the right to choose abortion, up to and including the limit for fetal viability. RoeThe rights declaration provides the right to an abortion. This right can be (only) granted by the specification of police powers. prima facie right. You are correct. prima facie right gets overridden by constitutional interests of fetuses (or states’ interests in fetuses)—at the threshold for fetal viability.
This does not mean that it was the only reason why you decided to do so. Roe. The reason could not be used as a support for the judgment. This reason provided authority in positive law to support a decision that the challenged statutes could not be applied for women during the first and second trimesters. Again, though, RoeDeclaratory Judgment declared that the statutes were unconstitutional. AllPotential applications RoeThe overbreadth proposal provided the basis for that decision of facial unconstitutionality. Tomorrow’s post will address overbreadth.