US Government and Roe vs Wade

 

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The United States of America is an interesting place with a complex system of government that seems dysfunctional and full of conflict. Many times the complexity results in many laws and regulations left in legal purgatory with no hope of being passed. Most US citizens lament this fact and accuse the government of being broken. But is it?

  To understand what is going on in US current events, it helps to understand how the federal government is set up and why it was set up the way it is. The federal government consists of 3 separate, but equal, branches of government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. The executive branch consists of the President, Vice President, Cabinet, and most federal agencies. The legislative branch is the House of Representatives and the Senate, which together, comprise the Congress. Finally, the judicial system is made up of the courts with the most infamous being the Supreme Court. Each of these branches have specific roles to fill, and by law, should not overreach their role by assuming the role of another branch. In addition, the roles are set up in such a way that a system of checks and balances is created that makes certain that the power of each branch is never exceeded. This design makes conflict inevitable and seems to be exactly what the Founding Fathers of the United States wanted in order to make sure the federal government was held in check.

  The most interesting branch of the federal government, however, is the Supreme Court. Tasked with interpreting laws made by the legislative branch, the judicial branch of government has an important oversight role in determining what legislation may be violating the Constitution. The lower courts usually make determinations on the lawfulness of a piece of legislation before the law is sent to the Supreme Court for a final ruling if an appeal process reaches this point. What the Supreme Court says is the final ruling on the law. If another law is brought forward to the Supreme Court that has legal precedent, many times the Supreme Court will let the precedent stand. However, the Supreme Court can overrule the precedent, which results in a change in the law as was done recently with the overturning of Roe vs Wade.

  Growing up Catholic, attending Catholic school from Kindergarten to 12 grade, and having a pro-life family has always caused me to question the decision of Roe vs Wade. I became curious about abortion in eigth grade and where the legality of such a practice began. During my eighth grade year, I started reading the Constitution and researching why the Supreme Court ruled the way they did, making abortion legal despite no explicit statement in the Constitution concerning the right to privacy. It seemed to me then, as it does now, that a very lenient interpretation of the Constitution was required to get to the decision. My feeling is the Supreme Court took a case and created a federal law based on weak Constitutional backing, making abortion legal and even going so far as to define pregnancy trimesters in order to specify the time periods when an abortion can be regulated and when it cannot. The behavior of the Supreme Court during this 1973 ruling seemed more legislative in nature than judicial.

  When the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade a few weeks ago, I was not surprised. When something is declared lawful based on implied arguments and is then codified in the courts and not through the legislative branch, it is only a matter of time when those implicit arguments can be countered and overruled as a bad judicial decision. From a legal standpoint, the overturning of Roe seems like a valid legal action. From a social standpoint, the negative and positive effects of this ruling will be felt across the country. At some point, the United States Congress will need to create laws that address the various issues that abortion spans, including:

• At what point in life is a person a person?
• When does a person have Constitutional rights?
• A biggie: Do US Citizens have a right to privacy and should it be put into federal law and maybe even added as another Constitutional Amendment?
• What extent can a US state outlaw its citizens from crossing state lines to do something legal in another state despite being illegal in their own state?