Here is a link to a LifeNews.com story about a recent decision by a federal judge invalidating Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks. The judge noted that if it wants to overturn Roe v. Wade then the state will “have to seek that relief from a higher court.” It seems likely that the state of Mississippi will try to do just that.
Judge Carlton Reeves’s opinion is almost beyond belief. Under existing law, his ruling is not a surprise. But the opinion contains some rather stunning observations. I’ll mention just one such observation. Judge Reeves seems to accept Justice Blackmun’s view that history demonstrates that there was a historical recognition of the right to an abortion. This historical account is deeply flawed, as many scholars have made clear. Despite Justice Blackmun’s efforts to argue to the contrary, John Keown’s scholarship makes clear that “Roe’s invention of a constitutional right to abortion represented a radical rejection of America’s longstanding history and traditions.”
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
