Bella Privitera Dr. Liebell POL 307 22 April 2024.
Justice Alito: Supreme Court Justice Paper Moot Court #2.
Biography Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. was born on April 1, 1950, in New Jersey. His father was born in Italy, where all four of his grandparents immigrated from. After graduating from high school as valedictorian, Alito went on to excel academically, earning a summa cum laude undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1972. He was, additionally, a member of Princeton’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and completed three months of training on active duty following his graduation. He was eventually placed on inactive reserve and was released as a captain in 1980. Alito completed his legal studies at Yale Law School…show more content… If a woman wants to be free of the burdens of pregnancy, that interest does not disappear the moment the viability line is crossed. Isn’t that right?” (Alito, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization). He argues against the viability line, highlighting the fact that a woman who is not yet at “viability” nonetheless wants to end her pregnancy both before and after the line has been crossed. So, is it truly unconstitutional that the State determines the line on a state-by-state basis instead of having one accepted line for the entirety of the nation? Furthermore, Alito questions the Respondents in Dobbs regarding common law, stressing that abortion is not associated with the history or traditions of our country because it is not recognized as a right or liberty under common law’s tenets. He declares, “Did any state constitutional provision recognize that abortion was a right, liberty, or immunity in 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted?... Does any judicial decision at that time or shortly or immediately after 1868 recognize that abortion was a right, liberty, or immunity?” (Alito, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization). Moreover, how can we claim that abortion is embedded in our country if it wasn’t recognized as a right or liberty until the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified? In his judgment, it is not part of the Fourteenth Amendment, nor anywhere else in the Constitution. Lastly, he questions the argument over the significance of stare decisis, addressing that the Court has overruled precedent in cases where the decision was egregiously wrong such
