Supreme Court
Landmark Cases Research
Names: ___________________________________________
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Name of Case: _______Roe vs Wade
In the 2nd half of the twentieth century people’s ideas about sexual relationships began to change
and become more liberal. Women could get birth control more easily and some states made it
easier to get abortions. The Court said that families have a right to privacy in their decisions about
having children and sexual relationships. The Court said that privacy was a basic value that is
Background
important for all the rights in the Bill of Rights. Jane Roe (not her real name) was unmarried and
Summary
pregnant and lived in Texas. She wanted to have an abortion, but according to Texas law she could
not have an abortion unless her life was in danger. Roe challenged the law by suing Wade, the
district attorney where she lived.
Ruled that women have a right to privacy and reproductive abortion.
The “right” to choose….
Majority Opinion
Dissenting
Opinion
Summary of the
Decision
Pro-choice
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment undoubtedly does place a limit, albeit a
broad one, on legislative power to enact laws such as this. If the Texas statute were to prohibit an
abortion even where the mother's life is in jeopardy, I have little doubt that such a statute would
lack a rational relation to a valid state objective ... But the Court's sweeping invalidation of any
restrictions on abortion during the first trimester is impossible to justify under that standard, and
the conscious weighing of competing factors that the Court's opinion apparently substitutes for the
established test is far more appropriate to a legislative judgment than to a judicial one.
The Supreme Court decided in favor of Roe in a 7-2 decision. Justice Blackmun wrote the opinion
for the majority, which recognized that a woman’s choice whether to have an abortion is protected
by her right to privacy
Justices in the Majority Opinion and their Ideology
Burger
Justices in the Dissenting Opinion and their Ideology
White
Douglas
Rehquist
Brennan
Stewart
Marshall
Blackmun and Powell