On May 2, Politico published a leaked draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in the pending case Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization. The draft opinion in Dobbs overrules the precedents Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which hold that women have the constitutional right to seek pre-viability abortions. In this episode, professors Mary Ziegler of UC Davis Law School and O. Carter Snead of Notre Dame Law School join once again to unpack the constitutional reasoning in Justice Alito’s draft, and the implications for the future of abortion rights in America and the future of Court as an institution in the aftermath of the leaked opinion. Jeffrey Rosen moderates.
Last year, we had two episodes about this case, before and after oral arguments, so be sure to listen to those if you haven’t—available here: Part 1 and Part 2.
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This episode was produced by Melody Rowell and engineered by Greg Scheckler. Research was provided by Sam Desai and Lana Ulrich.
Participants
Mary Ziegler is a professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Law. She specializes in the legal history of reproduction, the family, sexuality, and the Constitution. Her most recent book, Abortion and the Law in America: A Legal History, Roe v. Wade to the Present, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. Her new book, Dollars for Life: The Antiabortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment, will be published by Yale University Press in 2022.
O. Carter Snead is Professor of Law and Director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame Law School. He is one of the world’s leading experts on public bioethics. He is the author of What It Means to be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics. In addition to his scholarship and teaching, he has provided advice on the legal and public policy dimensions of bioethical questions to officials in all three branches of the U.S. government.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Read the leaked draft opinion authored by Justice Alito
- “The leak shows why abortion policy should be returned to the states,” by O. Carter Snead in The Washington Post
- “The Conservatives Aren’t Just Ending Roe—They’re Delighting in It,” by Mary Ziegler in The Atlantic
- Listen to “The Dobbs v. Jackson case – Part 1,” from November 25, 2021
- Listen to “The Dobbs v. Jackson case – Part 2,” from December 3, 2021
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
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