{"id":164707,"date":"2017-04-06T11:29:51","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T15:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=164707"},"modified":"2017-04-06T11:30:11","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T15:30:11","slug":"forsythe-roe-most-unsettled-constitutional-decision-of-past-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/forsythe-roe-most-unsettled-constitutional-decision-of-past-50-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Forsythe: Roe is the ‘most unsettled constitutional decision of the past 50 years’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

In her opening statement on day one of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Neil Gorsuch, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) singled out <\/em>Roe v. Wade\u2014the Supreme Court\u2019s 1973 decision that legalized abortion for any reason, at any time, in every state\u2014as the most important Supreme Court decision that she wanted the judge to keep, saying it was \u201csuper precedent\u201d because it had been affirmed in 39 cases.<\/em><\/p>\n

That false claim cobbles together cases in which <\/em>Roe was merely cited or applied, not reaffirmed on the merits. (The actual number of decisions in which <\/em>Roe was \u201creaffirmed\u201d is 3, not 39.) \u00a0More importantly, Senator Feinstein\u2019s claim ignores many other factors that show that <\/em>Roe is the most unsettled constitutional decision of the past 50 years.<\/em><\/p>\n

Roe is unsettled by the Justices\u2019 own inconsistency in their application of <\/em><\/em>Roe\u2019s abortion doctrine, and its detailed standards, over the past 44 years. That, in turn, has sown inconsistency and confusion among the lower federal courts.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, <\/em>Roe 1.0\u2014the original opinion including the original rationale for <\/em>Roe\u2014is defunct, discarded in the <\/em>Casey decision of 1992. The historical rationale for <\/em>Roe\u2014the legal justification for its connection to the Constitution\u2014was replaced by a new sociological rationale created in <\/em>Casey\u2014the assumption that women have come to rely on abortion as a back-up to failed contraception.<\/em><\/p>\n

Roe is unsettled because the original opinion and rationale have never been persuasive. The Court abandoned the original rationale by 1989. Abortion-rights activists have spent the past 44 years looking for a new constitutional hook for <\/em>Roe\u2014the equal protection clause? The Nineteenth Amendment that gave women the vote in 1920? Or (my favorite) the cruel and unusual punishment clause?<\/em><\/p>\n

~ Clarke Forsythe, The Daily Caller<\/a>, April 5, 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In her opening statement on day one of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Neil Gorsuch, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) singled out Roe v. Wade\u2014the Supreme Court\u2019s 1973 decision that legalized abortion for any reason, at any time, in every state\u2014as the most important Supreme Court decision that she wanted the judge to keep, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":85743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4,3058],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nForsythe: Roe is the 'most unsettled constitutional decision of the past 50 years'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Senator Feinstein\u2019s claim ignores many other factors that show that Roe is the most unsettled constitutional decision of the past 50 years."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/forsythe-roe-most-unsettled-constitutional-decision-of-past-50-years\/\" 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