Why Roe Still Stands: Abortion Law, the Supreme Court, and the Republican Regime
Studies in Law, Politics, and Society
ISBN: 978-1-78635-076-3, eISBN: 978-1-78635-075-6
Publication date: 14 April 2016
Abstract
From one angle, abortion law appears to confirm the regime politics account of the Supreme Court; after all, the Reagan/Bush coalition succeeded in significantly curtailing the constitutional protection of abortion rights. From another angle, however, it is puzzling that the Reagan/Bush Court repeatedly refused to overturn Roe v. Wade. We argue that time and again electoral considerations led Republican elites to back away from a forceful assertion of their agenda for constitutional change. As a result, the justices generally acted within the range of possibilities acceptable to the governing regime but still typically had multiple doctrinal options from which to choose.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Austin Sarat and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions.
Citation
Keck, T.M. and McMahon, K.J. (2016), "Why
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited