The role of the supreme court is to rule on whether a law or action is constitutional or not. Cases are brought to the court and argued in front of the supreme court justices. These cases have to do with the rights of the people and can have a major impact on US laws. Sometimes state laws are overturned because they are determined to be unconstitutional.
A major and well known case is Roe v Wade. The case involved a woman named Norma Mccorvey who lived in Texas. At the time Texas only allowed abortion in cases of rape and incest. While Norma said she was raped, there was no way to prove it, so she was denied*. The interesting thing about this case is that by the time it made it to the supreme court she had already had the baby, which proved …show more content…
This lead to the case being taken to the supreme court, making the case we know now.
First off, the man representing the State of Texas, Jay Floyd, opened the preceding with one of the worst jokes in legal history: “It’s an old joke, but when a man argues against two beautiful ladies like this, they are going to have the last word.” The sexist statement was followed by dead silence, an iconically bad start to an important case. A case that he ultimately lost.
The court ultimately sided with Roe but, why? Well there were a lot of arguments about the right for a woman to have an abortion. What it came down to was the question of why a state would want to regulate an abortion in the first place. One reason would be is that they have a compelling interest in women’s health. Making sure they are safe and healthy. The other is a compelling interest in protecting the fetus. Due to this, the decision ended up being more of a medical decision rather than a constitutional one. In the writing for the decision it stated that they could use a trimester rule to rationalize the right to an abortion. In the first trimester it is extremely safe to perform an abortion. There is no risk to the women’s health, and at this point the fetus isn’t considered viable. In the second trimester there is more risk to the women so there is a reasonable interest to regulate abortion. During the third trimester the fetus is then viable and there is an interest
A major and well known case is Roe v Wade. The case involved a woman named Norma Mccorvey who lived in Texas. At the time Texas only allowed abortion in cases of rape and incest. While Norma said she was raped, there was no way to prove it, so she was denied*. The interesting thing about this case is that by the time it made it to the supreme court she had already had the baby, which proved …show more content…
This lead to the case being taken to the supreme court, making the case we know now.
First off, the man representing the State of Texas, Jay Floyd, opened the preceding with one of the worst jokes in legal history: “It’s an old joke, but when a man argues against two beautiful ladies like this, they are going to have the last word.” The sexist statement was followed by dead silence, an iconically bad start to an important case. A case that he ultimately lost.
The court ultimately sided with Roe but, why? Well there were a lot of arguments about the right for a woman to have an abortion. What it came down to was the question of why a state would want to regulate an abortion in the first place. One reason would be is that they have a compelling interest in women’s health. Making sure they are safe and healthy. The other is a compelling interest in protecting the fetus. Due to this, the decision ended up being more of a medical decision rather than a constitutional one. In the writing for the decision it stated that they could use a trimester rule to rationalize the right to an abortion. In the first trimester it is extremely safe to perform an abortion. There is no risk to the women’s health, and at this point the fetus isn’t considered viable. In the second trimester there is more risk to the women so there is a reasonable interest to regulate abortion. During the third trimester the fetus is then viable and there is an interest