The most controversial of the civil rights cases is undoubtedly Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), which has been applied in a way that effectively establishes an unwritten constitutional right to have an abortion, though the opinion of Roe itself made no such assertion directly. Roe represents a twofold failure of judicial social engineering, since it (1) applied a uniform legal solution over all the states on a highly contentious issue that opens deep moral, religious, and philosophical fissures, and (2) was poorly reasoned and not grounded in law, giving it little intellectual legitimacy. We are only going to consider the second aspect of Roe, its failing as a legal argument. Roe’s intellectual inadequacies are well known and criticized among legal scholars, even those who personally favor a right to abortion. These criticisms have not reached a larger audience, however, due to the superficial coverage of legal matters by the mass media. Accordingly, we need to clear some common misconceptions before examining the opinion of Roe itself, which is often cited but seldom read.  Read more... (1688 words, 1 image, estimated 6:45 mins reading time)

 <\/p>\n

The most controversial of the civil rights cases is undoubtedly\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/i>, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)<\/a>, which has been applied in a way that effectively establishes an unwritten constitutional right to have an abortion, though the opinion of\u00a0Roe<\/i>\u00a0itself made no such assertion directly.\u00a0Roe<\/i>\u00a0represents a twofold failure of judicial social engineering, since it (1) applied a uniform legal solution over all the states on a highly contentious issue that opens deep moral, religious, and philosophical fissures, and (2) was poorly reasoned and not grounded in law, giving it little intellectual legitimacy. We are only going to consider the second aspect of\u00a0Roe<\/i>, its failing as a legal argument.\u00a0Roe\u2019s<\/i>\u00a0intellectual inadequacies are well known and criticized among legal scholars, even those who personally favor a right to abortion.\u00a0These criticisms have not reached a larger audience, however, due to the superficial coverage of legal matters by the mass media. Accordingly, we need to clear some common misconceptions before examining the opinion of\u00a0Roe<\/i>\u00a0itself, which is often cited but seldom read.  Read more...<\/a> (1688 words, 1 image, estimated 6:45 mins reading time)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n\n