On Monday January 25, 2016, the US Supreme refused to review the 8th Circuit’s decision invalidating North Dakota’s heartbeat law. (MKB Mgmt. Corp. v. Stenehjem, 795 F. 3d 768 (8th Cir. 2015).) The North Dakota law banned abortions when the unborn child has a detectable heartbeat. The Eighth Circuit considered itself bound by the Supreme Court’s decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
The 8th Circuit did note, however, that “good reasons exist for the Court to evaluate its jurisprudence.” Among other reasons, the lower court noted that the Supreme Court’s case law “discounts the legislative branch’s recognized interest in protecting unborn children.”
At this time, the Court doesn’t appear interested in considering cases that attack Roe/Casey directly.
Supreme Court Won’t Let North Dakota Ban Abortions on Unborn Babies After 6 Weeks
Richard Myers
Richard S. Myers, the Vice-President of UFL, is Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law, where he teaches Antitrust, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, and Religious Freedom. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College and earned his law degree at Notre Dame, where he won the law school's highest academic prize. He began his legal career by clerking for Judge John F. Kilkenny of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Myers also worked for Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington, D.C. He taught at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law before joining the Ave Maria faculty. He is a co-editor of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition: Contemporary Perspectives (Catholic University of American Press, 2004) and a co-editor of Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy (Scarecrow Press, 2007). He has also published extensively on constitutional law in law reviews and also testified before Congressional and state legislative hearings on life issues.
Married to Mollie Murphy, who is also on the faculty at Ave Maria School of Law, they are the proud parents of six children - Michael, Patrick, Clare, Kathleen, Matthew, and Andrew. http://www.avemarialaw.edu/index.cfm?event=faculty.bio&pid=11705E7D4E0111010366
