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> John Roberts, Chief Justice
> John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice
> Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice
> Anthony M. Kennedy, Associate Justice
> David H. Souter, Associate Justice
> Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice
> Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice
> Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice
> Samuel A. Alito, Associate Justice |
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, only five justices must
agree in order to decide the outcome of a case. |
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Chief Justice
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Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005. |
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Born in Buffalo, New York 1955 |
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Degrees: AB and JD from Harvard |
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Married with two children |
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Anti-choice |
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Voted with the majority in Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood (Carhart II). In a 5-4 decision that put politics before women's health, the Court upheld the first-ever federal ban on certain abortions. In upholding the ban, the Court undermined a core principle of Roe v. Wade - that women's health must remain paramount. NAF opposed Roberts' nomination to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
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Appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1975 |
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Born in Chicago 1920 |
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Degrees: AB University of Chicago, JD Northwestern University |
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Married with four children |
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Pro-choice |
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Justice Stevens has consistently and vigorously upheld the protections of Roe v. Wade.
He has voted to uphold a woman's right to choose in several cases including Casey and Stenberg (Carhart I). Additionally,
Justice Stevens opposed the weakening of Roe that occurred in both the Casey and Carhart II decisions. Stevens joined Justice Ginsburg's impassioned dissent in Carhart II attacking the majority for placing women's health in danger and for undermining women's struggle for equality.
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Associate Justice
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Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 |
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Born in New Jersey 1936 |
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Degrees: AB from Georgetown University and University of
Frisbourg (Switzerland), also an LLB from Harvard Law School |
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Married with nine children |
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Anti-choice |
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Justice Scalia has consistently voted against the protections of Roe and has likened
abortion to sodomy, polygamy, incest, and suicide. In his dissent in Casey Justice Scalia wrote:
"Roe was plainly wrong." Justice Scalia joined a concurrence in Carhart II that stated "the Court's abortion jurisprudence, including Casey and Roe v. Wade, has no basis in the Constitution."
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Associate Justice
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Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 |
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Born in California 1936 |
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Degrees: BA from Stanford University and London School of
Economics, and a LLB from Harvard Law School |
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Married with three children |
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Mixed |
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Justice Kennedy has a mixed record on abortion. In Casey, together with Justices O'Connor
and Souter, he reaffirmed the central holding of Roe, but weakened the constitutional protection for
abortion. In Carhart I , Kennedy dissented from the Court's decision and would have upheld Nebraska's ban
on abortion. However, in Carhart II, a nearly identical case decided in 2007, Kennedy wrote the opinion for the majority. In a 5-4 decision that put politics before women's health, the Court upheld the first-ever federal ban on certain abortions. In upholding the ban, the Court undermined a core principle of Roe v. Wade - that women's health must remain paramount.
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Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 |
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Born in Massachusetts 1939 |
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Degrees: AB from Harvard University, AB in Jurisprudence and MA
from Oxford University, and LLB from Harvard Law School |
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Unmarried |
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Mixed |
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Justice Souter voted to uphold a woman's right to choose in Casey, Carhart I, and Carhart II. However,
the decision in Casey, which he wrote along with Justices O'Connor and Kennedy, weakened the protections
of Roe and has allowed states to restrict women's access to abortion. Souter joined Justice Ginsburg's impassioned dissent in Carhart II attacking the majority for placing women's health in danger and for undermining women's struggle for equality.
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Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 |
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Born in Georgia 1948 |
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Degrees: AB from Holy Cross College, and a JD from Yale Law School |
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Married with one child |
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Anti-choice |
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Justice Thomas has consistently voted against the protections of privacy and a woman's
right to choose. He is staunchly opposed to abortion and believes that Roe should be overruled. In his
dissent in Carhart I, he stated: "In 1973, this Court struck down an Act of the Texas
Legislature that had been in effect since 1857, thereby rendering unconstitutional abortion statutes in
dozens of States. As some of my colleagues on the Court, past and present, ably demonstrated, that
decision was grievously wrong." Thomas authored a concurring opinion in Carhart II that stated "the Court's abortion jurisprudence, including Casey and Roe v. Wade, has no basis in the Constitution."
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Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993 |
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Born in New York 1933 |
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Degrees: BA from Cornell University, and a LLB from Columbia Law School |
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Married with two children |
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Pro-choice |
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Justice Ginsburg voted to strike down Nebraska's ban on safe abortion procedures in
Carhart I. During her 1993 confirmation hearings, Ginsburg showed great support for women's
right to choose. Ginsburg wrote an impassioned dissent in Carhart II attacking the majority for placing women's health in danger and for undermining women's struggle for equality. She stated women's "ability to realize their full potential...is intimately connected to 'their ability to control their reproductive lives.'" She concluded that "the Act, and the Court's defense of it, cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by the Court - and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives."
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Nominated by President Clinton in 1994 |
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Born in California 1938 |
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Degrees: AB from Stanford University, BA from Magdalen College
(Oxford), and a LLB from Harvard Law School |
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Married with three children |
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Pro-choice |
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Justice Breyer wrote the majority opinion that struck down Nebraska's ban on safe
abortion procedures in Carhart I. He wrote: "Taking account of these virtually
irreconcilable points of view, aware that constitutional law must govern a society whose different
members sincerely hold directly opposing views, and considering the matter in light of the
Constitution's guarantees of fundamental individual liberty, this Court, in the course of a generation,
has determined and then redetermined that the Constitution offers basic protection to the woman's right
to choose." Breyer joined Justice Ginsburg's impassioned dissent in Carhart II attacking the majority for placing women's health in danger and for undermining women's struggle for equality.
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Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005 (confirmed 2006) |
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Born in New Jersey 1950 |
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Degrees: AB from Princeton and JD from Yale Law School |
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Married with two children |
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Anti-choice |
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Voted with the majority in Carhart II. In a 5-4 decision that put politics before women's health, the Court upheld the first-ever federal ban on certain abortions. In upholding the ban, the Court undermined a core principle of Roe v. Wade - that women's health must remain paramount. NAF opposed Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court.
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