167-625: Thoroughgood " Thurgood " Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he was an attorney who fought for civil rights, leading the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund . Marshall
334-661: A companion case to Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), involving racially restrictive covenants . From 1939 to 1947, Marshall was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union . During that period, he aligned with the faction which favored a more absolutist defense of civil liberties. Most notably, unlike the majority of the Board, he was consistent in his opposition to Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 , which put Japanese Americans into concentration camps. Also, in contrast to most of
501-399: A constitutional right to abortion. Overall, she spent between 20 and 30 minutes discussing jurisdiction and procedure instead of constitutional issues. In his opening argument in defense of the abortion restrictions, attorney Jay Floyd made what was later described as the "worst joke in legal history". Appearing against two female lawyers, Floyd began, "Mr. Chief Justice and may it please
668-509: A plaintiff ." They also wanted to increase the likelihood that the panel selection would help them win in court. They wanted to present their case to a three-judge panel which included a judge they thought would be sympathetic, which was a possibility only by filing a case in Dallas. If either of the two cases they filed in Dallas were assigned favorably, they intended to ask for the other one to be consolidated with it. At first, Weddington
835-468: A pregnancy trimester timetable to govern all abortion regulations in the United States. The Court also classified the right to abortion as "fundamental", which required courts to evaluate challenged abortion laws under the " strict scrutiny " standard, the most stringent level of judicial review in the United States. The Supreme Court's decision in Roe was among the most controversial in U.S. history. Roe
1002-872: A visiting judge on the Second Circuit for a week in January 1992, and he received the American Bar Association 's highest award in August of that year. His health continued to deteriorate, and, on January 24, 1993, at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center , he died of heart failure . He was 84 years old. Marshall lay in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court, and thousands thronged there to pay their respects; more than four thousand attended his funeral service at
1169-558: A "relentlessly formalistic catechism" that failed to take account of the amendment's "crushing burden on indigent women". Although Marshall's sliding-scale approach was never adopted by the Court as a whole, the legal scholar Susan Low Bloch comments that "his consistent criticism seems to have prodded the Court to somewhat greater flexibility". Marshall supported the Warren Court's constitutional decisions on criminal law, and he wrote
1336-548: A "vestigial savagery" that was immoral and violative of the Eighth Amendment. Afterwards, Marshall and Brennan dissented in every instance in which the Court declined to review a death sentence, filing more than 1,400 dissents that read: "Adhering to our views that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, we would grant certiorari and vacate
1503-627: A case in which the Court ruled that the government could forbid homeless individuals from protesting poverty by sleeping overnight in Lafayette Park ; although Burger decried their claims as "frivolous" attempts to "trivialize" the Constitution, Marshall argued that the protesters were engaged in constitutionally protected symbolic speech . Marshall joined the majority in Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman , two cases in which
1670-425: A closely related case, Doe v. Bolton , until they had first decided certain other cases. One case they decided first was Younger v. Harris . The justices felt the appeals raised difficult questions on judicial jurisdiction . Another case was United States v. Vuitch , in which they considered the constitutionality of a District of Columbia statute which banned abortion except when the mother's life or health
1837-417: A concrete deadline came as a disappointment to Marshall, who had argued for total integration to be completed by September 1956. In the years following the Court's decision, Marshall coordinated challenges to Virginia's " massive resistance " to Brown , and he returned to the Court to successfully argue Cooper v. Aaron (1958), involving Little Rock 's attempt to delay integration. Marshall, who according to
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#17327718530302004-453: A hearing before a Senate subcommittee lasted only fifteen minutes; the full Senate confirmed him on August 11, 1965. As Solicitor General, Marshall won fourteen of the nineteen Supreme Court cases he argued. He later characterized the position as "the most effective job" and "maybe the best" job he ever had. Marshall argued in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (1966) that conditioning
2171-678: A key role in rallying support for anti-abortion laws. According to James S. Witherspoon, a former briefing attorney for the Court of Appeals for the Third Supreme Judicial District of Texas, abortion was not legal before quickening in 27 out of all 37 states in 1868; by the end of 1883, 30 of the 37 states, six of the ten U.S. territories, and the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi , where abortion had once been common, had codified laws that restricted abortion before quickening. More than 10 states allowed pre-quickening abortions, before
2338-454: A lack of resolve to implement desegregation even when faced with difficulties and public resistance. In a dissent in City of Memphis v. Greene that according to Tushnet "demonstrated his sense of the practical reality that formed the context for abstract legal issues", he argued that a street closure that made it more difficult for residents of an African-American neighborhood to reach a city park
2505-877: A law practice in Baltimore but soon joined Houston at the NAACP in New York. They worked together on the segregation case of Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada ; after Houston returned to Washington, Marshall took his place as special counsel of the NAACP, and he became director-counsel of the newly formed NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He participated in numerous landmark Supreme Court cases involving civil rights, including Smith v. Allwright , Morgan v. Virginia , Shelley v. Kraemer , McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents , Sweatt v. Painter , Brown , and Cooper v. Aaron . His approach to desegregation cases emphasized
2672-618: A law practice in Baltimore, but it was not financially successful, partially because he spent much of his time working for the benefit of the community. He volunteered with the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP). In 1935, Marshall and Houston brought suit against the University of Maryland on behalf of Donald Gaines Murray , an African American whose application to
2839-604: A lawful purpose. This meant that if the mother died, the individual performing the abortion was guilty of murder. This aspect of common law regarded pre-quickening abortions as a type of inchoate offense . Negative liberty rights from common law do not apply in situations caused by consensual or voluntary behavior, which allowed for abortions of fetuses conceived in a consensual manner to be common law offenses. The majority opinion for Roe v. Wade authored in Justice Harry Blackmun 's name would later state that
3006-544: A life-saving procedure on behalf of the mother, without regard to pregnancy stage and without recognition of the other interests involved, is violative of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Three justices from the majority filed concurring opinions in the case. Justice Potter Stewart wrote a concurring opinion in which he said that even though the Constitution makes no mention of
3173-408: A little ironic that, after several hundred years of class-based discrimination against Negroes, the Court is unwilling to hold that a class-based remedy for that discrimination is permissible". Dissenting in City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. , he rejected the majority's decision to strike down an affirmative-action program for government contractors, stating that he did "not believe that this Nation
3340-635: A majority of States today are of relatively recent vintage". During the 1960s and early 1970s, opposition to abortion was concentrated among members of the political left and the Democratic Party, although feminists within predominately supported legalization. Most liberal Catholics and Mainline Protestants (both of which tended to vote for the Democratic Party) opposed liberalizing laws surrounding abortion while most other Protestants , including evangelicals , supported doing so as
3507-536: A matter of religious liberty , what they saw as a lack of biblical condemnation , and belief in non-intrusive government . By 1971, elective abortion on demand was effectively available in Alaska, California, Hawaii, New York, Washington, and Washington, D.C. Some women traveled to jurisdictions where it was legal, although not all could afford to. In 1971, Shirley Wheeler was charged with manslaughter after Florida hospital staff reported her illegal abortion to
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#17327718530303674-399: A piece of tissue. You just missed your period." This convinced McCorvey that abortion should be legal. She agreed to let them represent her under the impression that she would be able to eventually get a legal abortion. She smoked an illegal drug and drank wine so she would not have to think about her pregnancy. McCorvey gave birth to a daughter at Dallas Osteopathic Hospital on June 2, 1970;
3841-412: A pregnancy to abort. The Court concluded that an established exception to the mootness doctrine allows consideration of cases that are "capable of repetition, yet evading review". Blackmun noted that McCorvey might get pregnant again, and pregnancy would normally conclude more quickly than an appellate process : "If that termination makes a case moot, pregnancy litigation seldom will survive much beyond
4008-544: A rally where attendees listened to speakers from the Women's National Abortion Action Coalition (WONAAC). Her conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Florida . Sarah Weddington recruited Linda Coffee to help her with abortion litigation. Their first plaintiffs were a married couple; they joined after the woman heard Coffee give a speech. The intended suit would state abortions were medically necessary for
4175-451: A record of facts. The oral argument was scheduled by the full Court for December 13, 1971. Before the Court could hear the oral argument, Justices Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan II retired. Chief Justice Warren Burger asked Justice Potter Stewart and Justice Blackmun to determine whether Roe and Doe , among others, should be heard as scheduled. They recommended that the Court continue on as scheduled. As she began speaking for
4342-573: A reputation as a prominent figure in the civil rights movement. He also defended individuals who had been charged with crimes before both trial courts and the Supreme Court. Of the thirty-two civil rights cases that Marshall argued before the Supreme Court, he won twenty-nine. He and W. J. Durham wrote the brief in Smith v. Allwright (1944), in which the Court ruled the white primary unconstitutional, and he successfully argued both Morgan v. Virginia (1946), involving segregation on interstate buses, and
4509-493: A ruling upholding the convictions of civil rights protesters at the New York World's Fair . Marshall's dissents indicated that he favored broader interpretations of constitutional protections than did his colleagues. Marshall's nomination to the office of Solicitor General was widely viewed as a stepping stone to a Supreme Court appointment. Johnson pressured Southern senators not to obstruct Marshall's confirmation, and
4676-421: A set of chambers in the Supreme Court building, and employ law clerks. The names of retired associate justices continue to appear alongside those of the active justices in the bound volumes of Supreme Court decisions. Federal statute ( 28 U.S.C. § 294 ) provides that retired Supreme Court justices may serve—if designated and assigned by the chief justice—on panels of the U.S. courts of appeals, or on
4843-402: A state's interest in protecting prenatal life became so compelling that it could legally prohibit all abortions except where necessary to protect the mother's life or health. Having completed its analysis, the Court concluded that Texas's abortion statutes were unconstitutional and struck them down. A state criminal abortion statute of the current Texas type, that excepts from criminality only
5010-502: A sworn statement made in 2003, McCorvey asked if she had what was needed to be part of Weddington and Coffee's lawsuit. She recounted being told, "Yes. You're white. You're young, pregnant, and you want an abortion." Both McCorvey's whiteness and her lower social class were crucial factors in the attorneys' choice to have her as their plaintiff. McCorvey recounted that the lawyers asked if she thought abortion should be legal. McCorvey said she did not know. Weddington told her, "It's just
5177-515: A system in which local schools were funded mainly through property taxes, arguing that the policy (which meant that poorer school districts obtained less money than richer ones) resulted in unconstitutional discrimination. His dissent in Harris v. McRae , in which the Court upheld the Hyde Amendment 's ban on the use of Medicaid funds to pay for abortions , rebuked the majority for applying
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5344-460: A waiter in hotels, in clubs, and on railroad cars, and his mother was an elementary school teacher. The family moved to New York City in search of better employment opportunities not long after Thurgood's birth; they returned to Baltimore when he was six years old. He was an energetic and boisterous child who frequently found himself in trouble. Following legal cases was one of William's hobbies, and Thurgood oftentimes went to court with him to observe
5511-533: Is anywhere close to eradicating racial discrimination or its vestiges". Marshall's most influential contribution to constitutional doctrine was his "sliding-scale" approach to the Equal Protection Clause, which posited that the judiciary should assess a law's constitutionality by balancing its goals against its impact on groups and rights. Dissenting in Dandridge v. Williams , a case in which
5678-450: Is arbitrary, but perhaps any other selected point, such as quickening or viability, is equally arbitrary." In the same memo he suggested that the end of the first trimester seemed more likely to get support from other justices and allowed states the ability to adjust their statutes. He was of the impression that doctors were concerned that recovering abortion patients would take up too many hospital beds, and that abortion patients later than
5845-543: Is named in his honor. Buildings named for Marshall include New York's 590-foot-high Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse (renamed in 2001), where he heard cases as an appellate judge, and the federal judicial center in Washington. He is the namesake of streets and schools throughout the nation. Marshall posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton in 1993, and
6012-400: Is slight". Lader also predicted that "If such a theoretical case was carried to a high court, perhaps even the U.S. Supreme Court , and the judges confirmed a broad interpretation of the meaning of a threat to life, undoubtedly a landmark in abortion decisions would be reached." The historical survey for Roe also referenced two articles by Cyril Means, who served as counsel to NARAL. In
6179-422: Is to win the case no matter how, however, I suppose I agree with Means's technique: begin with a scholarly attempt at historical research; if it doesn't work, fudge it as necessary; write a piece so long that others will read only your introduction and conclusion; then keep citing it until courts begin picking it up. This preserves the guise of impartial scholarship while advancing the proper ideological goals. After
6346-608: The Miranda doctrine should be expanded and fully enforced. In cases involving the Sixth Amendment , he argued that defendants must have competent attorneys; dissenting in Strickland v. Washington , Marshall (parting ways with Brennan) rejected the majority's conclusion that defendants must prove prejudice in ineffective assistance of counsel cases. Marshall fervently opposed capital punishment throughout his time on
6513-642: The Bill of Rights . He joined the majority in Eisenstadt v. Baird to strike down a statute that prohibited the distribution or sale of contraceptives to unmarried persons, dissented when the Court in Bowers v. Hardwick upheld an anti-sodomy law , and dissented from the majority's decision in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health that the Constitution did not protect an unconditional right to die . On
6680-504: The National Cathedral . The civil rights leader Vernon E. Jordan said that Marshall had "demonstrat[ed] that the law could be an instrument of liberation", while Chief Justice William Rehnquist gave a eulogy in which he said: "Inscribed above the front entrance to the Supreme Court building are the words 'Equal justice under law'. Surely no one individual did more to make these words a reality than Thurgood Marshall." Marshall
6847-573: The Ninth Amendment . The court relied on Justice Arthur Goldberg 's 1965 concurrence in Griswold v. Connecticut . Yet the Court also declined to grant an injunction against enforcing the law, and ruled against the married couple on the basis that they lacked standing. Since Wade said he would continue to prosecute people for performing abortions, the lack of an injunction meant that McCorvey could not get an abortion. Roe v. Wade reached
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7014-668: The Republican and Democratic parties in the following decades. Anti-abortion politicians and activists sought for decades to restrict abortion or overrule the decision; polls into the 21st century showed that a plurality and a majority, especially into the late 2010s to early 2020s, opposed overruling Roe . Despite criticism of the decision, the Supreme Court reaffirmed Roe 's central holding in its 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey . Casey overruled Roe 's trimester framework and abandoned its "strict scrutiny" standard in favor of an " undue burden " test. In 2022,
7181-498: The Senate , appoint justices to the Supreme Court. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution effectively grants life tenure to associate justices, and all other federal judges , which ends only when a justice dies, retires, resigns, or is impeached and convicted . Each Supreme Court justice has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before it, and the chief justice's vote counts no more than that of any other justice; however,
7348-570: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit . Hughes knew Coffee, who clerked for her from 1968 to 1969. Additionally, the backgrounds of two other judges also gave Weddington and Coffee hope they would be successful. On June 17, 1970, the three judges unanimously ruled in McCorvey's favor and declared the Texas law unconstitutional, finding that it violated the right to privacy found in
7515-624: The United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in his honor in 2003. He was depicted by Sidney Poitier in the 1991 television movie Separate but Equal , by Laurence Fishburne in George Stevens Jr. 's Broadway play Thurgood , and by Chadwick Boseman in the 2017 film Marshall . Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States An associate justice of
7682-502: The University of Missouri's law school was rejected on account of his race, he filed suit, arguing that his equal-protection rights had been violated because he had not been provided with a legal education substantially equivalent to that which white students received. After Missouri courts rejected Gaines's claims, Houston—joined by Marshall, who helped to prepare the brief—sought review in the U.S. Supreme Court. They did not challenge
7849-569: The exclusionary rule applied to the states) did not apply retroactively, writing that the judiciary was "not free to circumscribe the application of a declared constitutional right". In United States v. Wilkins (1964), he concluded that the Fifth Amendment 's protection against double jeopardy applied to the states; in People of the State of New York v. Galamison (1965), he dissented from
8016-413: The lawsuit , Weddington did not speak again with McCorvey until four months after Roe was decided. After the first argument session, Burger assigned the task of writing the Court's opinions for both Roe and Doe to Blackmun. Douglas suggested to Blackmun that Burger assigned the opinions to him out of malicious intention, but Blackmun disagreed. He knew that Burger could not write it himself because
8183-555: The Board, Marshall charged that the prosecution of thirty-two right wing opponents of Roosevelt's pre-war foreign policy in the Sedition Trial of 1944 violated the First Amendment. In the years after 1945, Marshall resumed his offensive against racial segregation in schools. Together with his Inc Fund colleagues, he devised a strategy that emphasized the inherent educational disparities caused by segregation rather than
8350-532: The Constitution should be interpreted according to the Founders' original understandings ; in a 1987 speech commemorating the Constitution's bicentennial, he said: ... I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever "fixed" at the Philadelphia Convention. Nor do I find the wisdom, foresight, and sense of justice exhibited by the framers particularly profound. To the contrary,
8517-408: The Court created the trimester framework. During the first trimester, when it was believed that the procedure was safer than childbirth, the Court ruled that a state government could place no restrictions on women's ability to choose to abort pregnancies other than imposing minimal medical safeguards, such as requiring abortions to be performed by licensed physicians. From the second trimester on,
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#17327718530308684-576: The Court held that the First Amendment protected the right to burn the American flag. He favored the total separation of church and state , dissenting when the Court upheld in Lynch v. Donnelly a city's display of a nativity scene and joining the majority in Wallace v. Jaffree to strike down an Alabama law regarding prayer in schools. On the issue of the free exercise of religion , Marshall voted with
8851-406: The Court held the second argument session, Powell said he would agree with Blackmun's conclusion but pushed for Roe to be the lead of the two abortion cases being considered. Powell also suggested that the Court strike down the Texas law on privacy grounds. Byron White was unwilling to sign on to Blackmun's opinion, and Justice Rehnquist had already decided to dissent. During the drafting process,
9018-464: The Court introduced the concept of a constitutional " right to privacy " that it said had been intimated in earlier decisions such as Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters , which involved parental control over childrearing , and Griswold v. Connecticut , which involved the use of contraception. Then, "with virtually no further explanation of the privacy value", the Court ruled that regardless of exactly which provisions were involved,
9185-429: The Court ruled that evidence of increasing risks to the mother's health gave states a compelling interest that allowed them to enact medical regulations on abortion procedures so long as they were reasonable and "narrowly tailored" to protecting mothers' health. From the beginning of the third trimester on—the point at which a fetus became viable under the medical technology available in the early 1970s—the Court ruled that
9352-514: The Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which had accepted the " separate but equal " doctrine; instead, they argued that Gaines had been denied an equal education. In an opinion by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes , the Court held that if Missouri gave whites the opportunity to attend law school in-state, it was required to do the same for blacks. Houston returned to Washington in 1938, and Marshall assumed his position as special counsel
9519-451: The Court, and he would have to face Catholic political groups which were against abortion. If Marshall wrote the opinions, the ruling would be perceived as being directed towards African Americans, and he would have to face the displeasure of African American political groups. Stewart would have trouble going far enough in legalizing abortion. At this point, Black and Harlan had been replaced by William Rehnquist and Lewis F. Powell Jr. , but
9686-482: The Court, arguing that it was cruel and unusual and therefore unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment . He was the only justice with considerable experience defending those charged with capital crimes, and he expressed concern about the fact that injustices in death-penalty cases could not be remedied, often commenting: "Death is so lasting." In Furman v. Georgia , a case in which the Court struck down
9853-505: The Court. It's an old joke, but when a man argues against two beautiful ladies like this, they are going to have the last word ." His remark was met with cold silence; abortion rights lawyer Margie Pitts Hames thought that Chief Justice Burger "was going to come right off the bench at him. He glared him down." McCorvey did not attend either of the oral arguments along with her two lawyers. After talking McCorvey out of getting an illegal abortion and getting her name signed on an affidavit for
10020-556: The Court. The 82-year-old justice announced on June 27, 1991, that he would retire. When asked at a press conference what was wrong with him that would cause him to leave the Court, he replied: "What's wrong with me? I'm old. I'm getting old and coming apart!" President George H. W. Bush (whom Marshall loathed) nominated Clarence Thomas , a conservative who had served in the Reagan and Bush administrations, to replace Marshall. His retirement took effect on October 1. Marshall served as
10187-491: The Court: McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents , which was George W. McLaurin 's challenge to unequal treatment at the University of Oklahoma 's graduate school, and Sweatt v. Painter , which was Heman Sweatt 's challenge to his being required to attend a blacks-only law school in Texas. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of both McLaurin and Sweatt on the same day; although the justices did not overrule Plessy and
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#173277185303010354-492: The State of Texas. Weddington later stated that she "saw Roe as part of a much larger effort by many attorneys" whose collective interests she represented. James H. Hallford was a physician who was in the process of being prosecuted for performing two abortions. The Court allowed him to join the suit as a physician- intervenor on behalf of Jane Roe. One of the cases was assigned to a panel of judges which included Judge Sarah T. Hughes, who they thought would be sympathetic, and
10521-528: The Supreme Court for a decade, wrote that "it was rare during our conference deliberations that he would not share an anecdote, a joke or a story"; although O'Connor initially treated the stories as "welcome diversions", she later "realized that behind most of the anecdotes was a relevant legal point". Marshall did not wish to retire—he frequently said "I was appointed to a life term, and I intend to serve it"—but he had been in ill health for many years, and Brennan's retirement in 1990 left him unhappy and isolated on
10688-449: The Supreme Court have not rated Marshall as highly as some of his colleagues: although his pre–Supreme Court legal career and his staunch liberalism have met with broad approval, a perception that he lacked substantial influence over his fellow justices has harmed his reputation. In Abraham's view, "he was one of America's greatest public lawyers, but he was not a great Supreme Court justice". A 1993 survey of legal scholars found that Marshall
10855-537: The Supreme Court in 1967. A staunch liberal, he frequently dissented as the Court became increasingly conservative. Born in Baltimore , Maryland, Marshall attended Lincoln University and the Howard University School of Law . At Howard, he was mentored by Charles Hamilton Houston , who taught his students to be "social engineers" willing to use the law to fight for civil rights. Marshall opened
11022-543: The Supreme Court of the United States is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , other than the chief justice of the United States . The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869 . Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States grants plenary power to the president to nominate, and with the advice and consent (confirmation) of
11189-450: The Supreme Court overruled Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on the grounds that the substantive right to abortion was not "deeply rooted in this Nation's history or tradition", nor considered a right when the Due Process Clause was ratified in 1868, and was unknown in U.S. law until Roe . Abortion was a fairly common practice in the history of the United States, and
11356-428: The Supreme Court was established in 1789, the following 104 persons have served as an associate justice: Roe v. Wade Roe v. Wade , 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected a right to have an abortion . The decision struck down many abortion laws , and it sparked an ongoing abortion debate in
11523-415: The Supreme Court when both sides appealed in 1970. It bypassed the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit because 28 USC § 1253 authorizes a direct appeal to the Supreme Court in cases concerning the granting or denial of a civil injunction decided by a three judge panel. The case continued under the name Roe v. Wade instead of being switched to Wade v. Roe . The justices delayed taking action on Roe and
11690-685: The Supreme Court, Marshall participated in over 3,400 cases and authored 322 majority opinions. He was a member of the unanimous majority in United States v. Nixon that rejected President Nixon's claims of absolute executive privilege . Marshall wrote several influential decisions in the fields of corporate law and securities law , including a frequently-cited opinion regarding materiality in TSC Industries, Inc. v. Northway, Inc. His opinions involving personal jurisdiction , such as Shaffer v. Heitner , were pragmatic and de-emphasized
11857-729: The Supreme Court. In January 1973, the Supreme Court issued a 7–2 decision in McCorvey's favor holding that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides a fundamental "right to privacy", which protects a pregnant woman's right to an abortion. It also held that the right to abortion is not absolute and must be balanced against the government's interests in protecting women's health and prenatal life. It resolved these competing interests by announcing
12024-405: The Supreme Court; despite opposition from Southern senators , he was confirmed by a vote of 69 to 11. He was often in the majority during the consistently liberal Warren Court period, but after appointments by President Richard Nixon made the Court more conservative, Marshall frequently found himself in dissent. His closest ally on the Court was Justice William J. Brennan Jr. , and the two voted
12191-530: The U.S. Constitution and its guarantees of liberty covered a right to privacy that protected a pregnant woman's decision whether to abort a pregnancy. This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment 's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to
12358-431: The U.S. district courts. Retired justices are not, however, authorized to take part in the consideration or decision of any cases before the Supreme Court (unlike other retired federal judges who may be permitted to do so in their former courts); neither are they known or designated as a "senior judge". When, after his retirement, William O. Douglas attempted to take a more active role than was customary, maintaining that it
12525-547: The United States and therefore did not apply nationwide, but it pleased Marshall, who later said that he had filed the lawsuit "to get even with the bastards" who had kept him from attending the school himself. In 1936, Marshall joined Houston, who had been appointed as the NAACP's special counsel, in New York City, serving as his assistant. They worked together on the landmark case of Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938) . When Lloyd Lionel Gaines 's application to
12692-582: The United States about whether, or to what extent, abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion, and what the role of moral and religious views in the political sphere should be. The decision also shaped debate concerning which methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication . The case was brought by Norma McCorvey —under the legal pseudonym " Jane Roe "—who, in 1969, became pregnant with her third child . McCorvey wanted an abortion but lived in Texas , where abortion
12859-667: The ability to vote on the payment of a poll tax was unlawful; in a companion case to Miranda v. Arizona (1966), he unsuccessfully maintained on behalf of the government that federal agents were not always required to inform arrested individuals of their rights. He defended the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966) and Katzenbach v. Morgan (1966), winning both cases. In February 1967, Johnson nominated Ramsey Clark to be Attorney General . The nominee's father
13026-430: The age of the fetus and instead allowing states to regulate the procedure based on its safety for the mother. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court issued a 7–2 decision in favor of "Jane Roe" (Norma McCorvey) holding that women in the United States had a fundamental right to choose whether to have abortions without excessive government restriction and striking down Texas's abortion ban as unconstitutional . The decision
13193-550: The all-white University of Maryland Law School —applied to Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., and was admitted. At Howard, he was mentored by Charles Hamilton Houston , who taught his students to be "social engineers" willing to use the law as a vehicle to fight for civil rights. Marshall graduated in June 1933 ranked first in his class, and he passed the Maryland bar examination later that year. Marshall started
13360-458: The articles, Means misrepresented the common law tradition in ways that were helpful to the Roe side. Roy Lucas , the principal attorney assisting Weddington and Coffee, had previously received a memo from his colleague David M. Tundermann about Means's scholarship. The memo stated that the conclusions in Means's articles "sometimes strain credibility." It also stated: Where the important thing
13527-497: The baby, Shelley Lynn Thornton , was adopted by a couple in Texas. In 1970, Coffee and Weddington filed Roe v. Wade as a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on behalf of McCorvey under the legal pseudonym " Jane Roe ", and they also filed Does v. Wade on behalf of the married couple. The defendant for both cases was Dallas County District Attorney , Henry Wade , who represented
13694-680: The bicentennial of the Constitution as a living document, including the Bill of Rights and the other amendments protecting individual freedoms and human rights. As the Court became increasingly conservative, Marshall found himself dissenting in numerous cases regarding racial discrimination. When the majority held in Milliken v. Bradley that a lower court had gone too far in ordering busing to reduce racial imbalances between schools in Detroit, he dissented, criticizing his colleagues for what he viewed as
13861-531: The capital-punishment statutes that were in force at the time, Marshall wrote that the death penalty was "morally unacceptable to the people of the United States at this time in their history" and that it "falls upon the poor, the ignorant, and the underprivileged members of society". When the Court in Gregg v. Georgia upheld new death-penalty laws that required juries to consider aggravating and mitigating circumstances , he dissented, describing capital punishment as
14028-608: The case was leaked to and published in The Washington Post before the decision was published. Blackmun continued to work on his opinions in both cases over the summer recess, even though there was no guarantee that he would be assigned to write them again. Over the recess, he spent a week researching the history of abortion at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where he had worked in the 1950s. He talked daily on
14195-600: The cases were consolidated. In accordance with the Court's rules, two of the judges hearing the consolidated case were assigned on the basis of their judicial district, and the third judge on the panel was a circuit court judge chosen by the Chief Justice of the United States . The consolidated lawsuit was heard by a three-judge panel consisting of district court judges Sarah T. Hughes and William McLaughlin Taylor Jr. and appellate judge Irving Loeb Goldberg of
14362-504: The chief justice leads the discussion of the case among the justices. Furthermore, the chief justice—when in the majority—decides who writes the court's opinion; otherwise, the senior justice in the majority assigns the writing of a decision. The chief justice also has certain administrative responsibilities that the other justices do not and is paid slightly more ($ 298,500 per year as of 2023, compared to $ 285,400 per year for an associate justice). Associate justices have seniority in order of
14529-625: The constitutional oath of office on October 2, 1967, becoming the first African American to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall remained on the Supreme Court for nearly twenty-four years, serving until his retirement in 1991. The Court to which he was appointed—the Warren Court —had a consistent liberal majority, and Marshall's jurisprudence was similar to that of its leaders, Chief Justice Warren and Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Although he wrote few major opinions during this period due to his lack of seniority, he
14696-415: The conviction of a Georgia man charged with possessing pornography, writing: "If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a State has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch." In Amalgamated Food Employees Union Local 400 v. Logan Valley Plaza , he wrote for the Court that protesters had the right to picket on private property that
14863-538: The criminalization of abortion did not have "roots in the English common-law tradition", and was thought to return to the more permissive state of pre-1820s abortion laws. One purpose for banning abortion was to preserve the life of the fetus, another was to protect the life of the mother, another was to create deterrence against future abortions, and another was to avoid injuring the mother's ability to have children. Judges did not always distinguish between which purpose
15030-399: The date their respective commissions bear, although the chief justice is always considered to be the most senior justice. If two justices are commissioned on the same day, the elder is designated the senior justice of the two. Currently, the senior associate justice is Clarence Thomas . By tradition, when the justices are in conference deliberating the outcome of cases before the Supreme Court,
15197-521: The death sentence in this case." According to Ball, Marshall felt that the rights protected by the First Amendment were the Constitution's most important principles and that they could be restricted only for extremely compelling reasons. In a 1969 opinion in Stanley v. Georgia , he held that it was unconstitutional to criminalize the possession of obscene material . For the Court, he reversed
15364-628: The decision appeared on newsstands a few hours before it was published by the court. Burger demanded a meeting with Time 's editors and punishment for the leaker. Powell refused Hammond's resignation, on the grounds that "Hammond had been double-crossed" by the reporter. Justice Harry Blackmun authored the opinion of the Court—the "majority opinion"—and was joined by six other justices: Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices Potter Stewart , William J. Brennan Jr. , William O. Douglas , Thurgood Marshall , and Lewis F. Powell Jr. After reciting
15531-433: The factors that govern the abortion decision. ... We, therefore, conclude that the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision, but that this right is not unqualified and must be considered against important state interests in regulation. Texas's lawyers had argued that limiting abortion to situations where the mother's life was in danger was justified because life began at the moment of conception , and therefore
15698-472: The facts of the case, the Court's opinion first addressed several legal questions involving procedure and justiciability . These included mootness , a legal doctrine that prevents American federal courts from hearing cases that have ceased to be "live" controversies because of intervening events. Under a normal application of the doctrine, McCorvey's appeal would have been considered moot because she had already given birth to her child and therefore no longer had
15865-595: The field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." When Marshall heard Warren read those words, he later said, "I was so happy I was numb". The Court in Brown ordered additional arguments on the proper remedy for the constitutional violation that it had identified; in Brown II , decided in 1955, the justices ordered that desegregation proceed "with all deliberate speed". Their refusal to set
16032-455: The first argument had already occurred before they became Supreme Court justices. Justice Blackmun worked on a preliminary opinion for Roe which argued that Texas's law was unconstitutionally vague. This approach accommodated the claims of some doctors who were concerned that prosecutors might disagree with them over what constituted "life". Blackmun thought this approach would be a good way to avoid controversy which would come with saying there
16199-417: The first trimester were more likely to require hospital beds than those whose fetuses were aborted earlier. Contrary to the justices who preferred viability, Douglas preferred the first-trimester line. Stewart said the lines were "legislative" and wanted more flexibility and consideration paid to state legislatures, though he joined Blackmun's decision. William Brennan proposed abandoning frameworks based on
16366-679: The following year. He also became the director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. (the Inc Fund), which had been established as a separate organization for tax purposes. In addition to litigating cases and arguing matters before the Supreme Court, he was responsible for raising money, managing the Inc Fund, and conducting public-relations work. Marshall litigated a number of cases involving unequal salaries for African Americans, winning nearly all of them; by 1945, he had ended salary disparities in major Southern cities and earned
16533-530: The full Senate confirmed him by a 56–14 vote on September 11, 1962. On the Second Circuit, Marshall authored 98 majority opinions, none of which was reversed by the Supreme Court, as well as 8 concurrences and 12 dissents. He dissented when a majority held in the Fourth Amendment case of United States ex rel. Angelet v. Fay (1964) that the Supreme Court's 1961 decision in Mapp v. Ohio (which held that
16700-597: The government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war, and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, that we hold as fundamental today ... "We the People" no longer enslave, but the credit does not belong to the framers. It belongs to those who refused to acquiesce in outdated notions of "liberty", "justice", and "equality", and who strived to better them ... I plan to celebrate
16867-915: The importance of state boundaries. According to Tushnet, Marshall was "the Court's liberal specialist in Native American law "; he endeavored to protect Native Americans from regulatory action on the part of the states. He favored a rigid interpretation of procedural requirements, saying in one case that "rules mean what they say"—a position that in Tushnet's view was motivated by the justice's "traditionalist streak". Like most Supreme Court justices, many of Marshall's law clerks went on to become prominent lawyers and legal scholars. His clerks included future Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan , U.S. circuit judge Douglas H. Ginsburg , and legal scholars Cass Sunstein , Mark Tushnet , and Martha Minow . Marshall wed Vivian "Buster" Burey on September 4, 1929, while he
17034-477: The interests of African Americans without incurring enormous political costs", nominated Marshall to be a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on September 23, 1961. The Second Circuit, which spanned New York, Vermont, and Connecticut, was at the time the nation's prominent appellate court. When Congress adjourned, Kennedy gave Marshall a recess appointment , and he took
17201-683: The issue of abortion rights, the author Carl T. Rowan comments that "no justice ever supported a woman's right to choice as uncompromisingly as Marshall did". He joined Blackmun's opinion for the Court in Roe v. Wade , which held that the Constitution protected a woman's right to have an abortion, and he consistently voted against state laws that sought to limit that right in cases such as Maher v. Roe , H. L. v. Matheson , Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health , Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists , and Webster v. Reproductive Health Services . During his service on
17368-450: The justice was "an unyielding supporter of civil liberties", whose "commitment to the values of the First Amendment was enhanced from actually realizing the historical consequences of being on the weaker and poorer side of power". In Marshall's view, the Constitution guaranteed to all citizens the right to privacy ; he felt that although the Constitution nowhere mentioned such a right expressly, it could be inferred from various provisions of
17535-405: The justices discussed the trimester framework at great length. Powell had suggested that the point where the state could intervene be placed at viability, which Thurgood Marshall supported as well. In an internal memo to the other justices before the majority decision was published, Justice Blackmun wrote: "You will observe that I have concluded that the end of the first trimester is critical. This
17702-583: The justices state their views in order of seniority. The senior associate justice is also tasked with carrying out the chief justice's duties when he is unable to, or if that office is vacant. There are currently eight associate justices on the Supreme Court. The justices, ordered by seniority, are: An associate justice who leaves the Supreme Court after attaining the age and meeting the service requirements prescribed by federal statute ( 28 U.S.C. § 371 ) may retire rather than resign. After retirement, they keep their title, and by custom may also keep
17869-413: The law, the supremacy of the Constitution as the embodiment of rights and privileges, and the Supreme Court's responsibility to play a significant role in giving meaning to the notion of constitutional rights." Marshall's jurisprudence was pragmatic and relied on his real-world experience as a lawyer and as an African American. He disagreed with the notion (favored by some of his conservative colleagues) that
18036-459: The legal scholar Mark Tushnet "gradually became a civil rights leader more than a civil rights lawyer", spent substantial amounts of time giving speeches and fundraising; in 1960, he accepted an invitation from Tom Mboya to help draft Kenya's constitution . By that year, Tushnet writes, he had become "the country's most prominent Supreme Court advocate". President John F. Kennedy , who according to Tushnet "wanted to demonstrate his commitment to
18203-413: The limitation of family size from Griswold v. Connecticut also applied here, although he acknowledged that "on the other side is the belief of many that the fetus, once formed, is a member of the human family and that mere personal inconvenience cannot justify the fetus' destruction." He also challenged the majority opinion with a series of hypothetical questions asking whether "health" might also include
18370-576: The majority in Wisconsin v. Yoder to hold that a school attendance law could not be constitutionally applied to the Amish , and he joined Justice Harry Blackmun 's dissent when the Court in Employment Division v. Smith upheld a restriction on religious uses of peyote and curtailed Sherbert v. Verner 's strict scrutiny standard. In the view of J. Clay Smith Jr. and Scott Burrell,
18537-470: The majority refused to review a death sentence. He favored a robust interpretation of the First Amendment in decisions such as Stanley v. Georgia , and he supported abortion rights in Roe v. Wade and other cases. Marshall retired from the Supreme Court in 1991 and was replaced by Clarence Thomas . He died in 1993. Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2, 1908, in Baltimore , Maryland, to Norma and William Canfield Marshall. His father held various jobs as
18704-527: The majority upheld Maryland's $ 250-a-month cap on welfare payments against claims that it was insufficient for large families, he argued that rational basis review was not appropriate in cases involving "the literally vital interests of a powerless minority". In what Cass Sunstein described as the justice's greatest opinion, Marshall dissented when the Court in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez upheld
18871-409: The majority—himself, Brennan, Stewart, and Marshall. Blackmun at one point thought all seven justices wanted to vote in the majority. In May 1972, Blackmun proposed that the case be reargued. Justice Douglas threatened to write a dissent from the reargument order because he and the other liberal justices were suspicious that Rehnquist and Powell would vote to uphold the Texas abortion statutes . He
19038-423: The nominee's liberal jurisprudence. In what Time magazine characterized as a "Yahoo-type hazing", Thurmond asked Marshall over sixty questions about various minor aspects of the history of certain constitutional provisions. By an 11–5 vote on August 3, the committee recommended that Marshall be confirmed. On August 30, after six hours of debate, senators voted 69–11 to confirm Marshall to the Supreme Court. He took
19205-490: The oath of office on October 23. Even after his recess appointment, Southern senators continued to delay Marshall's full confirmation for more than eight months. A subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed his hearing several times, leading Senator Kenneth Keating , a New York Republican, to charge that the three-member subcommittee, which included two pro-segregation Southern Democrats,
19372-438: The oldest college for African Americans in the United States. The mischievous Marshall was suspended for two weeks in the wake of a hazing incident, but he earned good grades in his classes and led the school's debating team to numerous victories. His classmates included the poet Langston Hughes . Upon his graduation with honors in 1930 with a bachelor's degree in American literature and philosophy, Marshall—being unable to attend
19539-517: The opinion of the Court in Benton v. Maryland , which held that the Constitution's prohibition of double jeopardy applied to the states. After the retirements of Warren and Justice Hugo Black , however, "Marshall was continually shocked at the refusal" of the Burger and Rehnquist Courts "to hold police and those involved in the criminal justice system responsible for acting according to the language and
19706-490: The oral argument, Sarah Weddington was unaware that the Court had decided to hear the case to decide which courts had jurisdiction to hear it rather than as an attempt to overturn abortion laws in a broad ruling. She began by bringing up constitutional reasons why the Court should overturn Texas's abortion law, but Justice Stewart asked questions directed towards the jurisdiction question instead. Weddington replied that she saw no problem with jurisdiction and continued to talk about
19873-400: The outcome of the case and then allow the clerks to draft the opinion themselves. He took umbrage at frequent claims that he did no work and spent his time watching daytime soap operas ; according to Tushnet, who clerked for Marshall, the idea that he "was a lazy Justice uninterested in the Court's work ... is wrong and perhaps racist". Marshall's closest colleague and friend on the Court
20040-504: The people who were formerly in slavery, regardless of anything else, shall be kept as near that stage as possible. And now is the time, we submit, that this Court should make clear that that is not what our Constitution stands for." On May 17, 1954, after internal disagreements and a 1953 reargument, the Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education , holding in an opinion by Chief Justice Earl Warren that: "in
20207-478: The people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether to terminate her pregnancy. The Court reasoned that outlawing abortions would infringe a pregnant woman's right to privacy for several reasons: having unwanted children "may force upon the woman a distressful life and future"; it may bring imminent psychological harm; caring for the child may tax the mother's physical and mental health; and because there may be "distress, for all concerned, associated with
20374-534: The phone with George Frampton , his 28-year-old law clerk who stayed behind in Washington, D.C. Frampton researched the history of abortion using a book authored by Lawrence Lader, the founding chairman of what is now called NARAL Pro-Choice America . Blackmun's papers made available since his death contain at least seven citations for Lader's 1966 book, Abortion . Chapter 16 of his book, "A Blueprint for Changing U.S. Abortion Laws" predicted that if abortion were to be legalized, "the possibility of community opposition
20541-522: The physical differences between the schools provided for blacks and whites. The Court ruled in Marshall's favor in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma (1948), ordering that Oklahoma provide Ada Lois Sipuel with a legal education, although the justices declined to order that she be admitted to the state's law school for whites. In 1950, Marshall brought two cases involving education to
20708-527: The physical facilities provided for blacks and whites and that segregation was inherently harmful to African-American children. Marshall helped to try the South Carolina case. He called numerous social scientists and other expert witnesses to testify regarding the harms of segregation; these included the psychology professor Ken Clark , who testified that segregation in schools caused self-hatred among African-American students and inflicted damage that
20875-472: The police. Wheeler was one of a few women who were prosecuted by their states for abortion. She received a sentence of two years probation , and as an option under her probation, chose to move back into her parents' house in North Carolina. The Playboy Foundation donated $ 3,500 to her defense fund and Playboy denounced her prosecution. The Boston Women's Abortion Coalition raised money and held
21042-615: The proceedings. Marshall later said that his father "never told me to become a lawyer, but he turned me into one ... He taught me how to argue, challenged my logic on every point, by making me prove every statement I made, even if we were discussing the weather." Marshall attended the Colored High and Training School (later Frederick Douglass High School ) in Baltimore, graduating in 1925 with honors. He then enrolled at Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania ,
21209-403: The quickening distinction was eliminated, and every state had anti-abortion laws by 1900. In the United States, before specific statutes were made against it, abortion was sometimes considered a common law offense , such as by William Blackstone and James Wilson . In all states throughout the 19th and early 20th century, pre-quickening abortions were always considered to be actions without
21376-528: The right man and the right place." The public received the nomination favorably, and Marshall was praised by prominent senators from both parties. The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings for five days in July. Marshall faced harsh criticism from such senators as Mississippi's James O. Eastland , North Carolina's Sam Ervin Jr. , Arkansas's John McClellan , and South Carolina's Strom Thurmond , all of whom opposed
21543-400: The right to choose to have an abortion without interference, he thought the Court's decision was a permissible interpretation of the doctrine of substantive due process , which says that the Due Process Clause 's protection of liberty extends beyond simple procedures and protects certain fundamental rights. Justice William O. Douglas's concurring opinion described his view that although
21710-571: The same way in most cases. Marshall's jurisprudence was pragmatic and drew on his real-world experience. His most influential contribution to constitutional doctrine, the "sliding-scale" approach to the Equal Protection Clause , called on courts to apply a flexible balancing test instead of a more rigid tier-based analysis . He fervently opposed the death penalty , which in his view constituted cruel and unusual punishment ; he and Brennan dissented in more than 1,400 cases in which
21877-553: The scholar Henry J. Abraham . Although the President briefly considered selecting William H. Hastie (an African-American appellate judge from Philadelphia) or a female candidate, he decided to choose Marshall. Johnson announced the nomination in the White House Rose Garden on June 13, declaring that Marshall "deserves the appointment ... I believe that it is the right thing to do, the right time to do it,
22044-563: The separate but equal doctrine, they rejected discrimination against African-American students and the provisions of schools for blacks that were inferior to those provided for whites. Marshall next turned to the issue of segregation in primary and secondary schools. The NAACP brought suit to challenge segregated schools in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kansas, South Carolina, and Virginia, arguing both that there were disparities between
22211-526: The spirit of fundamental procedural guarantees", according to Ball. He favored a strict interpretation of the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement and opposed rulings that made exceptions to that provision; in United States v. Ross , for instance, he indignantly dissented when the Court upheld a conviction that was based on evidence discovered during a warrantless search of containers that had been found in an automobile. Marshall felt strongly that
22378-403: The state's governmental interest in protecting prenatal life applied to all pregnancies regardless of their stage . The Court said that there was no indication that the Constitution's uses of the word " person " were meant to include fetuses, and it rejected Texas's argument that a fetus should be considered a "person" with a legal and constitutional right to life . The Court observed that there
22545-470: The stigma of having an illegitimate child, anxiety from the pregnancy being unwanted, the physical work of raising a child, the financial drain from the added expense of another child, and far off health risks that may never actually materialize in a similar fashion to how risks were warded off with prophylactic appendectomy. Douglas' dissent made a similar legal argument to the one used two years later in Roe v. Wade . The following day after their decision
22712-414: The subject of abortion was too controversial, and his opinions might get rejected by the majority. He also understood why the other justices could not be assigned to write the opinions: Douglas was too liberal for the public to accept his word. Likewise, he might split the Court's vote by writing something radical. In addition, the quality of his opinions had suffered recently. Brennan was the only Catholic on
22879-467: The trial stage, and appellate review will be effectively denied." After dealing with mootness and standing , the Court proceeded to the main issue of the case: the constitutionality of Texas's abortion law. The Court first surveyed abortion's status throughout the history of Roman law and the English and early American common law. It also reviewed the developments of medical procedures and technology used in abortions. Following its historical surveys,
23046-465: The university's law school had been rejected on account of his race. In that case— Murray v. Pearson —Judge Eugene O'Dunne ordered that Murray be admitted, and the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that it violated equal protection to admit white students to the law school while keeping blacks from being educated in-state. The decision was never appealed to the Supreme Court of
23213-726: The unwanted child". But at the same time, the Court rejected the notion that this right to privacy was absolute. It held instead that a woman's right to have an abortion must be balanced against other government interests , such as protecting maternal health and protecting the life of the fetus. The Court held that these government interests were sufficiently compelling to permit states to impose some limits on pregnant women's right to choose to have an abortion. A State may properly assert important interests in safeguarding health, maintaining medical standards, and in protecting potential life. At some point in pregnancy, these respective interests become sufficiently compelling to sustain regulation of
23380-431: The use of poisons in abortion. After the 1840s, there was an upsurge in abortions. In the 19th century, the medical profession was generally opposed to abortion, which Mohr argues arose due to competition between men with medical degrees and women without one. The practice of abortion was one of the first medical specialties, and was practiced by unlicensed people; well-off people had abortions and paid well. The press played
23547-407: The use of sociological data to show that segregation was inherently unequal. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit , where he favored a broad interpretation of constitutional protections. Four years later, Johnson appointed him as the U.S. Solicitor General . In 1967, Johnson nominated Marshall to replace Justice Tom C. Clark on
23714-408: The woman. The woman had a neurochemical disorder and it was considered medically necessary that she not give birth or raise children, yet they did not want to abstain from sex, and contraception might fail. The attorneys were concerned about standing since the woman was not pregnant. Weddington later wrote that they "needed to find a pregnant Texas woman who wanted an abortion and would be willing to be
23881-399: Was Tom C. Clark , an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Fearing that his son's appointment would create substantial conflicts of interest for him, the elder Clark announced his resignation from the Court. For Johnson, who had long desired to nominate a non-white justice, the choice of a nominee to fill the ensuing vacancy "was as easy as it was obvious", according to
24048-482: Was "likely to endure as long as the conditions of segregation exist". The five cases eventually reached the Supreme Court and were argued in December 1952. In contrast to the oratorical rhetoric of his adversary— John W. Davis , a former solicitor general and presidential candidate—Marshall spoke plainly and conversationally. He stated that the only possible justification for segregation "is an inherent determination that
24215-485: Was "one of the greatest leaders in the history of the African-American struggle for freedom and equality". A 1999 survey of black political scientists listed Marshall as one of the ten greatest African-American leaders in history; panelists described him as the "greatest jurist of the twentieth century" and stated that he "spearheaded the creation of the legal foundations of the civil rights movement". Scholars of
24382-547: Was Brennan, and the two justices agreed so often that their clerks privately referred to them as "Justice Brennanmarshall". He also had a high regard for Warren, whom he described as "probably the greatest Chief Justice who ever lived". Marshall consistently sided with the Supreme Court's liberal bloc. According to the scholar William J. Daniels: "His approach to justice was Warren Court–style legal realism ... In his dissenting opinions he emphasized individual rights, fundamental fairness, equal opportunity and protection under
24549-614: Was a fundamental right to abortion. Brennan and Douglas disagreed with Blackmun and wrote to him that instead he needed to focus on privacy. After communicating with the other justices, Blackmun felt that his opinion did not adequately reflect his liberal colleagues' views. In March 1972, the court issued a ruling in Eisenstadt v. Baird , a landmark case which applied the earlier marital privacy right now also to unmarried individuals. Douglas wrote to Blackmun in May 1972 that he thought there were four judges who were definitely willing to rule in
24716-421: Was a prominent figure in the movement to end racial segregation in American public schools. He won 29 of the 32 civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court, culminating in the Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education , which rejected the separate but equal doctrine and held segregation in public education to be unconstitutional. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Marshall to
24883-470: Was a student at Lincoln University. They remained married until her death from cancer in 1955. Marshall married Cecilia "Cissy" Suyat , an NAACP secretary, eleven months later; they had two children: Thurgood Jr. and John . Thurgood Jr. became an attorney and worked in the Clinton administration , and John directed the U.S. Marshals Service and served as Virginia's secretary of public safety . Marshall
25050-538: Was an active member of the Episcopal Church and served as a delegate to its 1964 convention, walking out after a resolution to recognize a right to disobey immoral segregation laws was voted down. He was a Prince Hall Mason , attending meetings and participating in rituals. He refused to attend the Supreme Court's annual Christmas party believing that it infringed upon the separation of church and state. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor , who served with Marshall on
25217-420: Was announced, the court voted to hear both Roe and Doe . According to Blackmun, Stewart felt the cases were a straightforward application of Younger v. Harris , and enough justices agreed to hear the cases to review whether they would be suitable for federal as opposed to only state courts. This sort of review was not about the constitutionality of abortion and would not have required evidence, witnesses, or
25384-511: Was biased against Marshall and engaged in unjustifiable delay. The subcommittee held several hearings between May and August 1962; Marshall faced harsh questioning from the Southerners over what the scholar Howard Ball described as "marginal issues at best". After further delays from the subcommittee, the full Judiciary Committee bypassed it and, by an 11–4 vote on September 7, endorsed Marshall's nomination. Following five hours of floor debate,
25551-408: Was buried at Arlington National Cemetery . According to the scholar Daniel Moak, Marshall "profoundly shaped the political direction of the United States", "transformed constitutional law", and "opened up new facets of citizenship to black Americans". For Tushnet, he was "probably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century"; in the view of the political scientist Robert C. Smith , he
25718-413: Was coaxed out of the action by his colleagues, and instead his dissent was merely mentioned in the reargument order without further statement or opinion. The case was reargued on October 11, 1972. Weddington continued to represent the pseudonymous Jane Roe, and Texas Assistant Attorney General Robert C. Flowers replaced Jay Floyd for Texas. A June 1972 memo written by Douglas to his colleagues discussing
25885-422: Was criticized by some in the legal community, including some who thought that Roe reached the correct result but went about it the wrong way, and some called the decision a form of judicial activism . Others argued that Roe did not go far enough, as it was placed within the framework of civil rights rather than the broader human rights . The decision also radically reconfigured the voting coalitions of
26052-409: Was endangered. The Court upheld the statute on the grounds that the word "health" was not unconstitutionally vague and placed the burden of proof concerning dangers to the life or health of the mother on the prosecutor instead of on the person who had performed the abortion. Justice William O. Douglas wrote a lengthy dissenting opinion to this case. He argued that the right to marital privacy and
26219-580: Was his prerogative to do so because of his senior status, he was rebuffed by Chief Justice Warren Burger and admonished by the whole Court. There are currently three living retired associate justices: David Souter , retired June 29, 2009; Anthony Kennedy , retired July 31, 2018; and Stephen Breyer , retired June 30, 2022. Souter has served on panels of the First Circuit Courts of Appeals following his retirement; Kennedy and Breyer have not performed any judicial duties since retiring. Since
26386-448: Was illegal except when necessary to save the mother's life. Her lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee , filed a lawsuit on her behalf in U.S. federal court against her local district attorney , Henry Wade , alleging that Texas's abortion laws were unconstitutional. A special three-judge court of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas heard the case and ruled in her favor. The parties appealed this ruling to
26553-406: Was issued together with a decision in a companion case , Doe v. Bolton , which involved a similar challenge to Georgia 's abortion laws. Larry Hammond, a law clerk for Powell, gave a Time reporter a copy of the decision " on background ", expecting that it would be issued by the court before the next issue of Time was published; however, due to a delay in the decision's release, the text of
26720-428: Was more important. Rather than arresting the women having the abortions, legal officials were more likely to interrogate them to obtain evidence against the individual doing the abortions. This law enforcement strategy was a response to juries which refused to convict women prosecuted for abortion in the 19th century. In 1973, Justice Blackmun's opinion stated that "the restrictive criminal abortion laws in effect in
26887-419: Was not always a public controversy. At a time when society was more concerned with the serious consequences of women becoming pregnant out of wedlock, family affairs were handled out of public view. The criminality of abortion at common law is a matter of debate by historians and legal scholars. In 1821, Connecticut passed the first state statute legislating abortion in the United States ; it forbade
27054-735: Was open to the public—a decision that was effectively overruled (over Marshall's dissent) four years later in Lloyd Corporation v. Tanner . He emphasized equality in his free speech opinions, writing in Chicago Police Dept. v. Mosley that "above all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its messages, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content". Making comparisons to earlier civil rights protests, Marshall vigorously dissented in Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence ,
27221-604: Was ranked as the seventeenth-greatest justice of the Supreme Court—a rating that, while still lower than that of his fellow liberal justices, was substantially higher than was recorded in an earlier survey. Marshall has received numerous tributes. The state of Maryland renamed Baltimore's airport the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in 2005, and the University of Maryland's law library
27388-514: Was still great disagreement over when an unborn fetus becomes a living being. We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, in this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer. To balance women's rights to privacy and state governments' interests in protecting mothers' health and prenatal life,
27555-588: Was typically in the majority. As a result of four Supreme Court appointments by President Richard Nixon , however, the liberal coalition vanished. The Court under Chief Justice Warren Burger (the Burger Court ) was not as conservative as some observers had anticipated, but the task of constructing liberal majorities case-by-case was left primarily to Brennan; Marshall's most consequential contributions to constitutional law came in dissent. The justice left much of his work to his law clerks , preferring to determine
27722-457: Was unconstitutional because it sent "a plain and powerful symbolic message" to blacks "that because of their race, they are to stay out of the all-white enclave ... and should instead take the long way around". Marshall felt that affirmative action was both necessary and constitutional; in an opinion in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke , he commented that it was "more than
27889-416: Was unsuccessful in finding a suitable pregnant woman. In June 1969, 21-year-old Norma McCorvey discovered she was pregnant with her third child. Ordinarily, lawyers are not allowed to directly solicit clients without any prior relationship, but McCorvey's situation qualified for an exception in the no solicitation rule which allows lawyers to solicit new clients for public interest cases. According to
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