Foundation
Legal Precedent
These cases reflect my favorite legal outcomes that function as both as a tool of education and a mechanism for the preservation of individual rights.
The Law
Roe v. Wade
The case began in 1970 when “Jane Roe”—a fictional name used to protect the identity of the plaintiff, Norma McCorvey (1947–2017)—instituted federal action against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas county, Texas, where Roe resided. The Supreme Court disagreed with Roe’s assertion of an absolute right to terminate pregnancy in any way and at any time. Instead, it attempted to balance what it regarded as a “fundamental” right to privacy with the state’s “compelling” interests in protecting the health of pregnant persons and the “potentiality of human life.” In doing so, the Court formulated a timetable based on the notions of trimester and fetal viability (i.e., the “capability of meaningful life outside the mother’s womb”). During the first trimester of pregnancy, the Court ruled, the state could not intervene in a person’s decision to have an abortion under normal circumstances. During the second trimester the state could regulate abortion procedures to protect the health of pregnant persons, but it could not prohibit abortions altogether. From the end of the second trimester, which the Court identified as the starting point of viability, the state could regulate or prohibit abortions in order to protect the pregnant person’s health or to preserve fetal viability. In no case, however, could the state criminalize abortions that were necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant person.
Miranda v. Arizona
The Fifth Amendment declares that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” Over the course of the nineteenth century, American courts held that this principle not only prevented torture or coerced confessions but also included a right not to incriminate oneself in court. In Twining v. New Jersey (1908) and Adamson v. California (1947), however, the Supreme Court said that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause did not apply the right against self-incrimination to the states. In the early 1960s, the Court overruled those earlier decisions and declared that the right against self-incrimination applies to the states and includes the right to remain silent during custodial questioning by police. The Court also held that the Sixth Amendment’s protection of the right to “have the Assistance of Counsel” applied to police interrogation.
Legal Politics
The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.
Article. III, section 1 (U.S. Constitution)
Cruelty can be better than kindness, he argued, explaining that “Making an example of one or two offenders is kinder than being too compassionate, and allowing disorders to develop into murder and chaos which affects the whole community.” Keeping one’s word can also be dangerous, he said, since “experience shows that those who do not keep their word get the better of those who do.”
Moreover, Machiavelli also believed that when leaders are not moral, it’s important they pretend they are to keep up appearances. “A prince must always seem to be very moral, even if he is not,” he wrote.
The Prince, Machiavelli
Cursten Branden Lewis 