Mr. Beat presents
Supreme Court Briefs
Dallas, Texas, 1969
A young woman named Norma McCorvey was single, pregnant, and scared about her future
She wanted an abortion, but in Texas abortions were illegal except in cases in which the mother's life was in danger
McCorvey had planned on having one anyway at an illegal clinic. However police shut down that clinic.
Desperate, Norma soon found out that two lawyers were looking for women who were seeking abortions in order to fight the Texas law that banned them
Them they promised pizza and beer, so Norma came
The lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee
Decided to take Norman's case over several others.The two were not much older than Norma.
On March 3, 1970
Coffee officially filed a complaint at the Dallas federal district court house, giving Norma a pseudonym "Jane Roe" to protect her identity.
They were suing the state of Texas, arguing it's abortion law was unconstitutional
Defending the state of Texas was Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas
By this time, Norma was six months pregnant.
The district court looked at Norma's case along with two other related cases on June 17, 1970
The three-judge panel of the Court unanimously called the Texas abortion law unconstitutional.
Saying it broke the right to privacy assumed under the ninth amendment
However, they did not act to stop an enforcement of the law the defense appeals the ruling in a went to the Supreme Court Meanwhile
Norma had given birth to the baby she had originally thought about killing and put the baby up for adoption
The case that for a year and a half
finally on December 13th
1971 the Supreme Court Heard arguments in his opening argument
Defense attorney Jay Floyd made a bad joke that probably hurt his cake going against, Weddington and coffee
He said quote it's an old joke, but when a man argues against two beautiful ladies like this
They are going to have the last word unquote the joke was not well received the entire courtroom was silent and chief
Justice Warren Burger gave him a cold glare
Regardless by the end of the arguments all of those justices agreed the Texas law was bad but for different reasons
But the case set some more because two justices hugo black and John Harlan have
recently retired and were not yet replaced in January Lewis f powell and William rehnquist
Joined the court
But it wasn't until october of 1972 that they heard arguments again the court announced their decision on January 22nd
1973 with A 722 majority vote
They went in favor of rome arguing that abortion fell under the 14th Amendment's due process clause
Again it came down to a right to privacy
Basically the court ruled a woman has a right to an abortion until the fetus reached an age of viability
viability means that the baby would be able to survive independently outside of the mother's womb
Well back, then doctors believe this to be around the 28th week of pregnancy today. Thanks to the wonders of technology
That's around the twenty second week of pregnancy the two
Justices who disagreed with the decisions were firing white and William rehnquist?
One of the new dudes on the court white argues the court was just making up a new
constitutional right and didn't have the authority to do, so
Rehnquist argue the other justices were expanding the [fourteenth] [amendment] that means something much more than its original authors intended
Regardless the Decision essentially legalized abortion and declared many state laws unconstitutional
Because of this before the Roe V wade decision 30 states had outlawed abortion and the other states
Restricted it in at least some way Roe V wade
Sparked a contentious debate that continues to this day on one side supporters of the Roe V wade decision are often called
Pro-choice meaning it should be the woman's choice whether she wants the abortion or not opponents of the Roe V wade decisions are often called
Pro-life they argue that because life begins at conception any abortion should be regarded as murder abortion issue has become even more
divisive in recent years in Fact many people vote for politicians
simply based on whether they are pro-life or not, so whatever happened in norma McCorvey
Well in A 1984 interview to reveal herself as row for the first time and became a pro choice
Advocate even volunteering at a woman's clinic at first she went around telling the press that she wanted the abortion because she was raped
However, she later said that this was a lie
She had made it up norma published in autobiography in 1994 called
I am robe soon after this in a surprising turn of events
She quit her job at the abortion clinic and became pro-life
She became a born-again Christian and immediately joined the staff of operation rescue a pro-life
organization at an office literally next door to the abortion clinic
She formerly worked at he was a pro-life
Activist for the rest of her life by the way [norma] never met the baby that started this whole thing that baby
Presumably grew up, and it's somewhere out there right now, and he or she is 46 years old
I'll see you for the next supreme Court Case jury
There's the first episode of Supreme Court brief
thanks to ian and Alex for supporting me on Patreon this episode was Rocky by the soup and
It's a little tricky, but as I was finishing up this video on Saturday, I found out that norma McCorvey
Had actually passed away
so yes a little trippy just a coincidence there next episode [of] my cover and the Collets being Maryland and
all of these cases
Are partially inspired by my friends over at reading through history?
Check out their youtube channel and check out this book that they make all the great supreme court cases
They also cover all the landmark cases that I will be featuring in teacher episodes of the series and it's available on Amazon you