Over its history, the Supreme Court has repeatedly looked to judicial dissent from its decisions and insightful criticism from the legal profession and scholars in considering the respect due precedent. Is a prior decision settled? If not, what factors have kept it unsettled? If settled, is there a compelling reason to reconsider it? Roe’s abortion …
The starting point for understanding Roe is understanding its practical legal impact on abortion law in America and on the states more specifically. What we know as Roe v. Wade is actually two cases, Roe v. Wade from Texas and Doe v. Bolton from Georgia (hereafter described together as “Roe”); they were “companion cases,” reviewed, …
There is a widespread myth that Roe v. Wade is settled and entitled to respect as judicial precedent. The purveyors of that myth must ignore the US Supreme Court’s decisions going back to the earliest days of the Court which point to judicial criticism and legal-scholarly criticism as keeping prior decisions unsettled. Most importantly, they must ignore …