PS 13

THE ABORTION CASES - I

I. TWO TYPES OF LAWS

A. constitutive

B. instrumental

a. An analogy and its limits

b. Role for the Supreme Court

II. First Round of cases: Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

a. Palko v. Connecticut

B. Brennan’s decision

a. Privacy

b. “penumbra”

C. Goldberg’s decision

a. Rights

D. Harlan’s decision

a. Due process

E. Black in dissent

a. The problem of defining rights: Rochin v California

III. Eisenstein v. Baird

IV. Roe v Wade (1973)

A. Blackmun’s argument

a. History

b. Reasons for prohibiting abortion

c. Is the fetus a “person”

i. Problems with this argument: Judith Jarvis Thomson’s case

d. Three stage theory