Roe’s Trimester Framework In March 1970, Jane Roe , an unmarried pregnant woman, filed lawsuit against Texas on the grounds that its ‘criminal abortion statutes’ were unconstitutional. Brought to the Supreme Court in 1972, Roe V. Wade declared allowing abortion only to save the mother 's life unconstitutional by interpreting the ‘right to privacy’ as being inclusive to a woman’s decision to have an abortion- a victory for Roe. The seven justice majority who contributed to Roe’s legalisation…
an attorney, regardless if the defendant can afford an attorney or not. Prior to the landmark decision of Gideon v Wainwright (1963), indigent defendants charged in state courts were not guaranteed the right to counsel. In 1942, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the appointment of counsel is not a “fundamental right,” and, therefore, is not essential to a fair trial in ¬Betts v. Brady (1942). The Betts reasoning, while stating that Betts’ case was fundamentally fair, created a special…
Abortion has since the beginning of American history been a subject of much sensitivity. Throughout most of America’s history, abortion was outlawed unquestionably. It is very difficult to determine with accuracy the degree of existence and practice of abortions before the 1800s. The reason for the uncertainty being because the lack of legitimate statistics of abortions, added to the fact that unwed pregnancies were kept secret, thus produced a very difficult time for anyone attempting to…
Mapp v. Ohio set the standard for the exclusionary rule, meaning that the States now too fell under the rule. Police today cannot search or seize any items with a search warrant. Furthermore, because of the case of Katz v. United States, the police are required to demonstrate “probable cause” for any investigative activity that is in violation of a citizen’s expectation…
Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court case has continually persisted to cause major debates for years upon years. Should abortion be legal is the million dollar question. In 1973 the decision cast was that yes, abortion is a legal right for women. Now over forty years later, a very similar case is back in the Supreme Court. In late 2015 the new case centered on Texas abortion laws shifted to the forefront of the media. After forty years of legal abortion, people are continually protesting the issue.…
Allison D. Kuhn’s article titled “If You Cannot Afford an Attorney, Will One Be Appointed for You?: How (Some) States Force Criminal Defendants To Choose Between Posting Bond and Getting a Court-Appointed Attorney”, published in 2012, provides a critique of the present-day US system of assigning state-provided counsel to indigent defendants. The author focused on the ambiguity of the term ‘indigent’ and criticized the system of indigence determination based on the defendant’s ability to post a…
The exclusionary rule acts as a control over law enforcement behavior and focuses on the failure of officers to obtain warrants authorizing them to conduct searches. Additionally, the exclusionary rule is grounded in the fourth amendment designed to protect citizens from illegal searches and seizures. The Fremont Weeks took place in 1914 and is considered as one of the first cases that the exclusionary rule was implemented. MR Weeks was arrested for using the mail to transport tickets for a…
Dr. Seuss once said, “A person is a person, no matter how small”. Abortion is a topic of debate across the world, and almost everyone has very strong feelings about it one way or the other. This topic raises hard to answer questions such as: when does life begin? At conception? At birth? Somewhere in between? It’s a difficult question to answer, but many have tried to define a line. Although a fetus does have some rights, I believe the fetus and embryo should have nearly complete protection and…
The estates of the deceased victims may rely on the landmark case of Donoghue v Stevenson to argue that Hughes Aviation is liable for the deaths. According to Lord Atkin in this case in his famous dicta of the neighbor principle where he stated that manufacturers of products may be held liable for defects in their products when…
The idea of racism is a weird thing. Its an idea of hatred, of showing that because someone is a different color, they are somehow superior or inferior. Since the 1600s when African Americans came to America they are have been treated differently, and up until the 1900s, they were still treated as inferior. Now it is 2016, and segregation is illegal, slavery is illegal, and black people share all the rights of a white person. But just because it is illegal to enslave another human does not mean…