Yvonne Kauger | |
---|---|
Associate Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court | |
Assumed office March 11, 1984 | |
Appointed by | George Nigh |
Preceded by | Ralph B. Hodges |
Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court | |
In office January 2007 –December 2008 | |
Personal details | |
Born | New Cordell,Oklahoma,U.S. | August 3,1937
Spouse(s) | Michael Paul Kirschner;Edward "Ned" C. Bastow,Jr. |
Education | Colony High School |
Alma mater | Southwestern Oklahoma State University,Oklahoma City University School of Law |
Yvonne Kauger (born August 3,1937) 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. [1] Kauger founded the Gallery of the Plains Indian in Colony,Oklahoma and is also the co-founder of the Red Earth organization. [2] Kauger also serves as Symposium Coordinator of the Sovereignty Symposium. Kauger was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 2001. [3]
Kauger was born in New Cordell,Oklahoma,and grew up in Colony,Oklahoma,where she helped her parents John and Alice Kauger with various chores on the family farm including picking cotton. Upon getting her driver's license,Kauger accepted a summer job at a small law firm. She was the valedictorian of her graduating class at Colony High School in 1955. Her time with the small law firm inspired her to pursue her law degree. [4]
Kauger attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University where she majored in biology and minored in both chemistry and English. She graduated in three years and worked as a medical technician at a medical arts lab for five years after graduating from an internship program at Saint Anthony Hospital. Kauger used this profession to fund her dream of becoming a lawyer. Kauger received her law degree at Oklahoma City University School of Law in 1969,where she graduated first in her law school class. [5]
Upon graduation from law achool,Kauger had received many job offers and worked in a private practice for Senator Cleeta John Rogers for two and a half years. After this,Kauger worked for Justice Ralph B. Hodges as a clerk for eleven and a half years before she was appointed to succeed Justice Hodges on the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Kauger was appointed to the Court by Governor George Nigh in 1984,and was one of the first two women appointed to the Court along with Alma Wilson. She served as chief justice from January 2007 to December 2008.
In 1986,Chief Justice John B. Doolin appointed Justice Kauger to establish and coordinate the Sovereignty Symposium,which has become an annual two-day event sponsored by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. [lower-alpha 1] The Symposium is held in the renovated Judicial Center building [lower-alpha 2] in Oklahoma City. The symposium attracts national and international experts and tribal leaders to discuss topics connected to art,law and history. Such issues can be exchanged in a scholarly,non-adversarial environment. [6]
After the Judicial Center renovation was complete,Kauger decorated the building with 70 pieces of Native American art works that she found in the Oklahoma History Center archives. She then collaborated with writer Gayleen Rabakukk and photographer Neil Chapman,while she served as editor herself. [6]
On March 21,2023,Kauger was in a 5-4 majority to declare the constitutional right to abortion in the state of Oklahoma. Kauger wrote a concurrence,discussing how women had the right to abortion even when they lacked many other rights such as the right to vote. Kauger wrote that because of doctors' reluctance to perform even emergency abortions,"the draconian law which allows no exception,in the absence of a medical emergency to preserve the life of the mother,may be a death sentence". [7]
On May 31,2023,Kauger was in a 6-3 majority striking down 2 Oklahoma abortion laws,one banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat without exceptions and the other being a total ban with some exceptions. [8] [9]
On November 14,2023,by the original 5-4 vote,the Oklahoma Supreme Court maintained the "life of mother" exception for the abortion ban. Kauger wrote a 1 sentence concurrence:
"One of the dissents states:"Any analysis of an abortion statute that proceeds under the proposition that the life of the unborn is unworthy of consideration is defective."
Any analysis of an abortion statute that proceeds under the proposition that the life of the mother is unworthy of consideration is defective." [10] [11]
Sandra Day O'Connor was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. O'Connor was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. A moderate conservative, O'Connor was known for her precisely researched opinions. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was considered a swing vote for the Rehnquist Court and the first four months of the Roberts Court. Before O'Connor's tenure on the Court, she was an Arizona state judge and earlier an elected legislator in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate.
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.
New Cordell is a city in, and county seat of, Washita County, Oklahoma, United States. It lies along U.S. Route 183. The population was 2,915 at the 2010 census. The community was previously established a few miles from the current site, but was moved about 1900. It was named for a U.S. Postal Service employee in Washington D. C., Wayne W. Cordell. The official name is New Cordell, though it is now commonly called Cordell.
The United States is a global outlier among developed countries on the issue of abortion, with the subject being divisible in American politics and culture wars to an extent not found elsewhere. There are widely different abortion laws depending on state.
Abortion laws vary widely among countries and territories, and have changed over time. Such laws range from abortion being freely available on request, to regulation or restrictions of various kinds, to outright prohibition in all circumstances. Many countries and territories that allow abortion have gestational limits for the procedure depending on the reason; with the majority being up to 12 weeks for abortion on request, up to 24 weeks for rape, incest, or socioeconomic reasons, and more for fetal impairment or risk to the woman's health or life. As of 2022, countries that legally allow abortion on request or for socioeconomic reasons comprise about 60% of the world's population.
George Patterson Nigh is an American politician and civic leader from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Nigh served as the 17th and the 22nd governor of Oklahoma and as the eighth and tenth lieutenant governor of Oklahoma. He was the first Oklahoma governor to be re-elected and the first to win all 77 counties in the state. Additionally, short term vacancies in the governor's office twice resulted in Nigh assuming gubernatorial duties while serving as lieutenant governor.
Juanita Kidd Stout was an American attorney and jurist who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1988 to 1989. She had previously operated a private legal practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Cabinet of the governor of Oklahoma is a body of the most senior appointed officials of the executive branch of the government of Oklahoma. Originally an informal meeting between the governor of Oklahoma and various government officials, the Governor's Cabinet has evolved into an important information link between the governor and the various agencies, boards and commissions that operate within state government.
James Winchester is an American lawyer and judge who has served as on the Oklahoma Supreme Court for district 5 since 2000. He had two-year terms as chief justice of the Supreme Court beginning in 2007 and 2017.
Abortion is illegal in El Salvador. The law formerly permitted an abortion to be performed under some limited circumstances, but in 1998 all exceptions were removed when a new abortion law went into effect.
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. She previously served as an attorney and U.S. Legal Program Director at the Center For Reproductive Law & Policy.
The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy with few exceptions, others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while others allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counselling requirements.
Noma D. Gurich is an American attorney and jurist who is serving as an associate justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Gurich was appointed the State's highest court by Governor Brad Henry in 2010 and assumed office on February 15, 2011. Gurich was appointed to the Court following the death of long-time Justice Marian P. Opala. Gurich is the third woman in state history after Alma Wilson and Yvonne Kauger to be appointed to the Supreme Court.
Betty Ann Price was an American music teacher, art director and ambassador. She was the executive director of the Oklahoma Arts Council from 1983 until her retirement in 2007. During her time as executive director, Price worked with eight different Oklahoma governors. Price served as an arts advisor to state, non-profit organizations and a number of boards. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 1985 among many other awards and recognitions.
Daniel J. Boudreau, a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of the University of Tulsa College of Law, is an Oklahoma attorney who was a justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1999 to 2004. After retiring from the Supreme Court, he is now in private practice as a specialist in Alternative Dispute Resolution, which he has also taught at the University of Tulsa College of Law.
Judith Evelyn Jyothi Prakash is a Singaporean judge in the Supreme Court. Her brother is ambassador Simon Tensing de Cruz. Prakash was appointed a permanent Judge of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of Singapore on 1 August 2016, the first woman to hold this post. During her time on the bench, she was also Judge of the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts, where she heard appeal matters.
Abortion in Oklahoma is illegal unless the abortion is necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman.
Alma Bell Wilson was an Oklahoma attorney who was appointed as the second female district judge in the state of Oklahoma in 1975. In 1982, she was elevated as the first woman to serve on the Oklahoma Supreme Court and between 1995 and 1997 was the first woman chief justice. Wilson was honored by many awards in her lifetime including induction into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and was named Appellate Judge of the Year in both 1986 and 1989.
Abortion in Minnesota is legal until fetal viability. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled the Minnesota Constitution conferred a right to an abortion in 1995 and the DFL-led Minnesota Legislature passed and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed into law a bill in 2023 to recognize a right to reproductive freedom and preventing local units of government from limiting that right, making Minnesota the first state in the nation in the post-Roe era to ensure residents have a legal right to an abortion.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. 215 (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.