Roe+v.+Wade

__3. Chief justice and brief biographical sketch__
====Warren E. Burger was born in Minnesota on September 17th 1907. He was born to a middle class family and paid his own ==== ====way through school. He succeeded Earl Warren in the year 1969. Nixon appointed Burger because he was a trustworthy man ==== ====who was bound tightly to the law. Warren E. Burger made very few controversial decisions during his time on the Supreme ==== ====Court. Many of his colleagues highly respected him on a professional level. He retired in 1986 after a long and influential career. ====

====__4. Document/Amendments to Constitution that are relevant__- In the case of Roe v. Wade the Ninth Amendment was used to give the right to have an abortion. It gave a person their right to privacy to do what they want to do. The Fourteenth’s Amendment equal protection clause because it gave a person the right to determine their own individual lives. Parts of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment also give the right of a person to have their personal privacy. **Explain.** ====

====__5. Summary of Case/Analysis-__The case of Roe v. Wade started as Norma McCorvey a woman in Texas who went under the alias Jane Roe fighting to get rid of a law that she thought was unconstitutional preventing her from getting an abortion. She was recommended to go and see Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee who were attorneys trying to go up against the Texas abortion law. On March 3rd, 1970 Linda Coffee filed a lawsuit against Dallas County district attorney Henry Wade. A couple of months later on May 22nd the trial were held before the Fifth Circuit Court’s panel of three federal judges. On June 17th of that year the court found that the Texas law prohibiting abortion was unconstitutional. Although this occurred it did not stop Texas to continue enforcing this law. On May 21st, 1971 the abortion cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton were agreed to be taken up by the Supreme Court. Later that year on December 13th the Supreme Court heard both cases. Almost a year later on October 11th, 1972 the Supreme Court listens(ed) to a retrial of both cases. Finally on January 22nd, 1973 the Supreme Court decides that both the Texas and Georgia abortion laws are unconstitutional. Because of this it changed almost all of the abortion laws in existence. ====

====__6. Main Issue/Argument__ The main issue with in this case was to make abortion legal within the first trimester of pregnancy without any interference from the government. Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) was the one who started fighting to make abortion legal. **did she need an abortion or was she fighting the constitutionality of the law?** ====

[[image:http://blogs.ajws.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/pro_choice.gif width="170" height="177"]]
====__7. Decisi____on made by court-__  That abortion is a fundamental right based on the individual during the first trimester. Also covered by the __ninth and fourteenth__ amendments. ====

====8. __Who voted what, dissenting, and why?__ There was a 7-2 vote in favor of __roe__. The rationale was that abortion rights fall under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The dissenters, **??? who were they??**, said how they found no law or element of the law that prohibited the government from banning abortion. Also, the confusion of when a baby becomes a person is brought up when it’s argued that a person cannot infringe another’s __constitutional__ rights. **Who brought this up? The dissenters?** ====

====__10. Personal opinion-__  I believe that during the first trimester, the individual should be granted the right to form their own decision about abortion or not. During the first trimester, the fetus cannot sustain life on its own, and should not be considered a human life. I also believe that each case should be viewed on an individual basis. Abortion should not always be the option, but in extreme cases, people need the option of existence. In extreme cases where neither the mother nor the child can survive, and the only way that either can survive is to abort the fetus, that should be allowed. Also other extreme cases where the fetus’s existence is detrimental to the health of the mother, or the baby, it should be allowed that there is the choice. In other extreme cases such as rape or incest, the individual should be allowed the right to choose for themselves. Most of the time, giving up the baby for adoption is a feasible destination, and many other ways to keep the fetus alive for birth, and I believe that people should usually choose to keep it growing, but because of the extreme cases; I believe that people should be allowed the right to choose  to make their own life-changing decisions, even if the choice is not necessarily the right one. ====

====__11. What if case went other way?-__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">Because this is such a touchy issue, that is so polarizing among Americans and citizens of the world, it seems as though the decision itself was not the importance of this case, it is what the case was about. If the court had decided to go in the other direction, there would have been a backlash at equal or greater magnitude of that which occurred after the case anyway. Even now, people around the country are trying to make the case be voted upon a second time, whether they are pro-choice or anti-choice. **They can't redo the case but must bring a new case for the Court to hear.** But, if the decision was made in the opposite direction, maybe there would be less federal trials based upon abortion. But then again, probably not. **Do you think the time period had anything to do with the judges' decision - early 70s and growing women's movement?** ====

Bibliography ==== "Roe v. Wade." West's Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. ==== ==== 5 Feb.2012. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Roe_v_Wade.aspx====

DISTRICT Attorney of Dallas County. Web. 05 Feb. 2012.
==== <http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/roe.html>. ====

FRONTLINE | PBS." // PBS: PublicBroadcasting Service // . Web. 29 Jan. 2012.
==== <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/clinic/wars/cases.html>. ====

// Research Guide // . Web. 26Jan. 2012.
==== <http://womenshistory.about.com/od/abortionuslegal/p/roe_v_wade.htm>. ====

// Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records // . Web. 01 Feb. 2012.
==== <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr>. ====

**6/7 Bibliography - good use of sources but what about alphabetizing?**
**26/28 Content -- strong use of explanation and details. articulate opinions too!** **5/5 Organization - good job. Get rid of the empty spaces though.** **37/40 Total**