Priscilla J. Smith | |
---|---|
Occupation(s) | Program Director, Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice |
Academic background | |
Education | Yale University |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Reproductive Justice |
Priscilla J. Smith is an American attorney and professor,notable for her advocacy for abortion in the United States. She is currently employed as a Clinical Lecturer and Program Director for the Study of Reproductive Justice at The Yale Law School. [1] She previously served as an attorney and U.S. Legal Program Director at the Center For Reproductive Law &Policy. [2]
Smith gained fame for her role in the landmark Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Carhart in 2003. She argued on behalf of abortion provider LeRoy Carhart to challenge the constitutionality of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act,a federal law banning the practice of intact dilation and extraction. The Supreme Court,in the majority opinion authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy,upheld the law and ruled against Carhart. [3]
In 2001,she also argued in Ferguson v. City of Charleston against nonconsensual drug testing for obstetrics patients at Medical University of South Carolina. The women who were tested positive were often arrested and imprisoned on child abuse charges. [4] The Supreme Court ruled that the forced drug tests were unconstitutional and a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. [5]
In 2017,Smith testified before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice,arguing against the constitutionality of the Heartbeat Protection Act. [6]
Smith received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1991 and her B.A. from Yale College in 1984. [7]
Intact dilation and extraction is a surgical procedure that removes an intact fetus from the uterus. The procedure is used both after miscarriages and for abortions in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.
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 generally protected a right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many abortion laws,and caused an ongoing abortion debate in 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.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey,505 U.S. 833 (1992),was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court upheld the right to have an abortion as established by the "essential holding" of Roe v. Wade (1973) and issued as its "key judgment" the restoration of the undue burden standard when evaluating state-imposed restrictions on that right. Both the essential holding of Roe and the key judgment of Casey were overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022,with its landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is a United States law prohibiting a form of late termination of pregnancy called "partial-birth abortion",referred to in medical literature as intact dilation and extraction. Under this law,any physician "who,in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce,knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years,or both". The law was enacted in 2003,and in 2007 its constitutionality was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart.
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services,492 U.S. 490 (1989),was a United States Supreme Court decision on upholding a Missouri law that imposed restrictions on the use of state funds,facilities,and employees in performing,assisting with,or counseling an abortion. The Supreme Court in Webster allowed for states to legislate in an aspect that had previously been thought to be forbidden under Roe v. Wade (1973).
Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated to the high court by President George W. Bush on October 31,2005,and has served on it since January 31,2006. After Antonin Scalia,Alito is the second Italian American justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court;he is also the eleventh Catholic Supreme Court justice in U.S. history.
Doe v. Bolton,410 U.S. 179 (1973),was a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States overturning the abortion law of Georgia. The Supreme Court's decision was released on January 22,1973,the same day as the decision in the better-known case of Roe v. Wade.
Stenberg v. Carhart,530 U.S. 914 (2000),was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court dealing with a Nebraska law which made performing "partial-birth abortion" illegal,without regard for the health of the mother. Nebraska physicians who performed the procedure contrary to the law were subject to having their medical licenses revoked. The Court struck down the law,finding the Nebraska statute criminalizing "partial birth abortion[s]" violated the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution,as interpreted in Planned Parenthood v. Casey and Roe v. Wade.
Reva B. Siegel is the Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Siegel's writing draws on legal history to explore questions of law and inequality,and to analyze how courts interact with representative government and popular movements in interpreting the Constitution. She is currently writing on the role of social movement conflict in guiding constitutional change,addressing this question in recent articles on reproductive rights,originalism and the Second Amendment,the "de facto ERA," and the enforcement of Brown. Her publications include Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking;The Constitution in 2020;and Directions in Sexual Harassment Law. Professor Siegel received her B.A.,M.Phil,and J.D. from Yale University,clerked for Judge Spottswood William Robinson III on the D.C. Circuit,and began teaching at the University of California at Berkeley. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,and is active in the American Society for Legal History,the Association of American Law Schools,the American Constitution Society,in the national organization and as faculty advisor of Yale's chapter. She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018.
Yvonne Kauger is an associate justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court,and was appointed to the Court's District 4 seat by Governor George Nigh in 1984,and served as chief justice from 1997 to 1998. She was born in New Cordell,Oklahoma,and grew up in Colony,Oklahoma,and is an honorary member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. Kauger founded the Gallery of the Plains Indian in Colony,Oklahoma and is also the co-founder of the Red Earth organization. Kauger also serves as Symposium Coordinator of the Sovereignty Symposium. Kauger was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.
Charles J. "Chuck" Cooper is an appellate attorney and litigator in Washington,D.C.,where he is a founding member and chairman of the law firm Cooper &Kirk,PLLC. He was named by The National Law Journal as one of the 10 best civil litigators in Washington. The New York Times described him as "one of Washington’s best-known lawyers." He has represented prominent American political figures,including Attorney General Jeff Sessions,in response to the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections;Attorney General John Ashcroft;and former National Security Adviser and United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.
Gonzales v. Carhart,550 U.S. 124 (2007),was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The case reached the high court after U.S. Attorney General,Alberto Gonzales,appealed a ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in favor of LeRoy Carhart that struck down the Act. Also before the Supreme Court was the consolidated appeal of Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit,whose ruling had the same effect as that of the Eighth Circuit.
Ferguson v. City of Charleston,532 U.S. 67 (2001),is a United States Supreme Court decision that found Medical University of South Carolina's policy regarding involuntary drug testing of pregnant women to violate the Fourth Amendment. The Court held that the search in question was unreasonable.
Janet Benshoof was an American human rights lawyer and President and Founder of the Global Justice Center. She founded the Center for Reproductive Rights,the world's first international human rights organization focused on reproductive choice and equality.
Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt,579 U.S. 582 (2016),was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court announced on June 27,2016. The Court ruled 5–3 that Texas cannot place restrictions on the delivery of abortion services that create an undue burden for women seeking an abortion. On June 28,2016,the Supreme Court refused to hear challenges from Wisconsin and Mississippi where federal appeals courts had struck down similar laws. Other states with similar laws may also be impacted.
Abortion in South Carolina is legal up to when an embryonic heartbeat can be detected,usually around 6 weeks gestation. On May 25,2023,Governor Henry McMaster signed a 6-week ban,and it took effect immediately. The ban was indefinitely blocked in court on May 26,and reinstated by the South Carolina Supreme Court on August 23.
Mazurek v. Armstrong,520 U.S. 968 (1997),was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld a Montana law permitting only licensed physicians to perform abortions. The Court summarily reversed a ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that had held that the law was likely intended to inhibit abortion access. In a per curiam opinion,a majority of the Court found that there was no evidence that the Montana legislature acted with an invalid intent. The Court also reiterated its earlier holding in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that the states have broad flexibility to regulate abortion so long as their regulations do not create an undue burden on a woman's right to choose. Three dissenting justices,in an opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens,wrote that they would have declined to hear the case because proceedings were still pending in the lower courts. The law itself was later struck down by the Montana Supreme Court on state-constitutional grounds.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization,No. 19-1392,597 U.S. ___ (2022),is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992),returning to individual states the power to regulate any aspect of abortion not protected by federal law.
303 Creative LLC v. Elenis,600 U.S. 570 (2023),is a United States Supreme Court decision that dealt with the intersection of anti-discrimination law in public accommodations with the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In a 6–3 decision,the Court found for a website designer,ruling that the state of Colorado cannot compel the designer to create work that violates her values. The case follows from Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission,584 U.S. ___ (2018),which had dealt with similar conflict between free speech rights and Colorado's anti-discrimination laws,but was decided on narrower grounds.
Lisa Schiavo Blatt is an American lawyer who serves as partner and chair of the Supreme Court and Appellate practice at the law firm Williams &Connolly. As of March 2023,she has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court 46 times —the most of any woman in U.S. history. In more than eighty percent of those cases,the Court ruled in favor of her client,one of the highest success rates for a Supreme Court advocate. Fortune has identified her as "the woman in private practice who appears most frequently at the court". In 2021,she was named the "Litigator of the Year" by the American Lawyer. In the same year,she was named "Practitioner of the Year (Appellate)" by Managing IP for her work in the Supreme Court case Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V.