Gonzales v. Carhart
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 8, 2006 Decided April 18, 2007
Full case name: Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General, Petitioner v. LeRoy Carhart, et al.; Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General, Petitioner v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., et al. Docket #: 05-380 05-1382 Citations: 127 S. Ct. 1610; 167 L. Ed. 2d 480; 75 U.S.L.W. 4210 Argument: Link to Oral Argument
Holding
Respondents have not demonstrated that the Act, as a facial matter, is void for vagueness, or that it imposes an undue burden on a woman's right to abortion based on its overbreadth or lack of a health exception. The decisions of the Courts of Appeals for the Eighth and Ninth Circuits are reversed.
Court membership
Chief Justice: John Roberts Associate Justices: John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito
Case opinions
Majority by: Kennedy Joined by: Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito Concurrence by: Thomas Joined by: Scalia Dissent by: Ginsburg Joined by: Stevens, Souter, Breyer
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. V; Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act

Pro-choice and pro-life activists demonstrate on the steps of the United States Supreme Court building.

Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. ___ (2007), is a United States Supreme Court case which upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.^[1] The case reached the high court after U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appealed a ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in favor of LeRoy Carhart that struck down the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Also before the Supreme Court was the consolidated appeal of Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which had struck down the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Image File history File links Seal_of_the_United_States_Supreme_Court. ... 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Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist and has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1991. ... Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933, Brooklyn, New York) is an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. ... Stephen Gerald Breyer (born August 15, 1938) is an American attorney, political figure, and jurist. ... Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. ... Amendment V (the Fifth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, is related to legal procedure. ... It has been suggested that Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1995 be merged into this article or section. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Issues of discussion Pro-choice describes the political and ethical view that a woman should have complete control over her fertility and pregnancy. ... This article is about the social movement. ... Activism, in a general sense, can be described as involvement in action to bring about change, be it social, political, environmental, or other change. ... Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. The buildings facade underwent renovation during the summer of 2006. ... // The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral form which will... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially referred to by the... It has been suggested that Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1995 be merged into this article or section. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Seal of the United States Department of Justice The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice (see 28 U.S.C. Â§ 503) concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. ... Alberto Gonzales (born August 4, 1955), is the 80th and current Attorney General of the United States. ... The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts: Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa District of Minnesota Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri District of Nebraska District of... Leroy Carhart, a doctor from Nebraska, became well-known for his participation in the Supreme Court case Stenberg v. ... The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: District of Alaska District of Arizona Central District of California Eastern District of California Northern District of California Southern District of California District of Hawaii...

The Supreme Court's decision, handed down on April 18, 2007, upheld the federal ban and held that it did not impose an undue burden on the due process right of women to obtain an abortion, "under precedents we here assume to be controlling,"^[2] such as the Court's prior decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. This case distinguished but did not reverse Stenberg v. Carhart (2000), in which the Court dealt with similar issues. is the 108th day of the year (109th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Due process of law is a legal concept that ensures the government will respect all of a persons legal rights instead of just some or most of those legal rights, when the government deprives a person of life, liberty, or property. ... Holding Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. ... Holding A Pennsylvania law that required spousal notification prior to obtaining an abortion was invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment because it created an undue burden on married women seeking an abortion. ... Holding Laws banning partial-birth abortion are unconstitutional if they do not make an exception for the womans health, or if they cannot be reasonably construed to apply only to the partial-birth abortion (intact D&X) procedure and not to other abortion methods. ...

History of case

The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was signed into law by President Bush on November 5, 2003, and was immediately challenged. Three different U.S. district courts, the Northern District of California, the Southern District of New York, and the District of Nebraska declared the law unconstitutional. Federal District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of California ruled it unconstitutional on June 1, 2004 in Planned Parenthood v. Ashcroft.^[3] New York District Judge Richard C. Casey also found the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional,^[4] as did U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf in Nebraska.^[5] It has been suggested that Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1995 be merged into this article or section. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      For other uses, see President of the United States (disambiguation). ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the forty-third and current President of the United States of America, originally inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Map of the boundaries of the United States Courts of Appeals and United States District Courts The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. ... The United States District Court for the Northern District of California is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma. ... The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (S.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties: New York (Manhattan), Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. ... The United States District Court for the District of Nebraska is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is comprised of the state of Nebraska. ... is the 152nd day of the year (153rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Judge Richard Conway Casey, with his guide dog. ...

The federal government appealed the district court rulings, first bringing Carhart v. Gonzales before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The panel unanimously upheld the ruling of the Nebraska court on July 8, 2005. Finding that the government offered no "new evidence which would serve to distinguish this record from the record reviewed by the Supreme Court in Stenberg," they held that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional because it lacks an exception for the health of the woman.^[6] The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts: Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa District of Minnesota Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri District of Nebraska District of... is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Attorney General Gonzales petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Eighth Circuit decision on September 25, 2005. Meanwhile, the Ninth Circuit also found the law unconstitutional,^[7] as did the Second Circuit (with a dissent),^[8] issuing their opinions on January 31, 2006. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the Carhart case on February 21, 2006,^[9] and agreed to hear the companion Planned Parenthood case on June 19, 2006.^[10] is the 268th day of the year (269th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: District of Alaska District of Arizona Central District of California Eastern District of California Northern District of California Southern District of California District of Hawaii... The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: District of Connecticut Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of New York District of Vermont The Second Circuit hears argument at the Thurgood Marshall U... is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Oral arguments

Oral arguments in this case (as well as its companion case) occurred on November 8, 2006. U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, presented arguments for the federal government and Priscilla Smith presented arguments for Dr. Carhart et al.^[11] U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement also presented arguments for the federal government in the companion case of Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood. Eve Gartner presented arguments for Planned Parenthood.^[12] The Supreme Court has made available audio of the oral arguments, in both Carhart^[13] and Planned Parenthood.^[14] is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United States Solicitor General is the individual tasked with arguing for the United States Government in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, when the government is party to a case. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Decision

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the Court that the respondents had failed to show that Congress lacked power to ban this abortion procedure. Chief Justice John Roberts along with Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia agreed with the Court's judgment, and they also joined Kennedy's opinion. This article is about the Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. ... In Common law, a defendant is any person who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff in a civil suit or any person who has been named in a criminal information or criminal complaint and stands accused of violating a criminal statute. ... This article is about the Chief Justice of the United States. ... Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. ... Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist and has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1991. ... Antonin Gregory Scalia (born March 11, 1936[1]) is an American jurist and the second most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ...

The Court left the door open for as-applied challenges, citing its recent precedent in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of New England. According to Washington Post reporter Benjamin Wittes, "The Court majority, following the path it sketched out last year in the New Hampshire case, decided to let the law stand as a facial matter and let the parties fight later about what, if any, applications need to be blocked."^[15] Holding that invalidating the statute entirely is not always necessary or justified, for lower courts may be able to render narrower declaratory and injunctive relief. ...

The Court decided to "assume ... for the purposes of this opinion" the principles of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The Court then proceeded to apply those "principles accepted as controlling here." Holding Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. ... Holding A Pennsylvania law that required spousal notification prior to obtaining an abortion was invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment because it created an undue burden on married women seeking an abortion. ...

The Court said that the lower courts had repudiated a central premise of Casey — that the state has an interest in preserving fetal life — and the Court held that the ban was narrowly tailored to address this interest. Relying deferentially on Congress's findings that this intact dilation and extraction procedure is never needed to protect the health of a pregnant woman, Kennedy wrote that a health exception was therefore unnecessary. And, where medical testimony disputed Congress's findings, Congress is still entitled to regulate in an area where the medical community has not reached a "consensus."^[2] Fetus at eight weeks A fetus (alternatively foetus or fœtus) is an embryo in later stages of development, from the third month of pregnancy until birth in humans. ... Intact dilation and extraction (IDX or intact D&X), also known as intact dilation and evacuation (intact D&E), dilation and extraction (D&X), intrauterine cranial decompression and in the United States as partial birth abortion, is a surgical abortion wherein an intact and usually viable fetus is removed from...

The majority opinion held that "ethical and moral" considerations, including an interest in fetal life, represented "substantial" state interests which (assuming they do not impose an "undue" burden) could be a basis for legislation at all times during pregnancy, not just after viability. Thus, the Court believed that the pre-viability/post-viability distinction was not implicated in Carhart.^[2] For other uses, see Fetus (disambiguation). ...

In addition, the Court distinguished the Stenberg case, which previously struck down Nebraska's partial-birth abortion law. The Court held that the state statute at issue in Stenberg was more ambiguous than the later federal statute at issue in Carhart.^[2] Holding Laws banning partial-birth abortion are unconstitutional if they do not make an exception for the womans health, or if they cannot be reasonably construed to apply only to the partial-birth abortion (intact D&X) procedure and not to other abortion methods. ...

The majority opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart did not discuss the constitutional rationale of the Court's prior abortion cases (i.e. "due process"). However, the majority opinion disagreed with the Eighth Circuit that the federal statute conflicted with "the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment [which] is textually identical to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."^[6] In United States law, adopted from English Law, due process (more fully due process of law) is the principle that the government must respect all of a persons legal rights instead of just some or most of those legal rights when the government deprives a person of life, liberty... Amendment V (the Fifth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, is related to legal procedure. ... Amendment XIV in the National Archives The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XIV) is one of the post-Civil War amendments (known as the Reconstruction Amendments), first intended to secure rights for former slaves. ...

Concurrence

Justice Thomas filed a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Scalia, saving for another day the issue of whether Congress had sufficient power under the Commerce Clause to enact this ban.^[2] The Commerce Clause was also mentioned in the opinion of the Court, and was the only clause of the Constitution mentioned explicitly by the opinions in this case. Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, known as the Commerce Clause, states that Congress has the exclusive authority to manage trade activities between the states and with foreign nations and Indian tribes. ...

The concurrence also stated that Justices Thomas and Scalia joined the Court's opinion "because it accurately applies current jurisprudence." And, the concurrence reiterated their view that that current abortion jurisprudence "has no basis in the Constitution." Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU, pointed out that "no less an anti-abortion proponent than Justice Scalia joined by Justice Thomas, in his separate opinion, chided the majority for not coming out and explicitly saying that they had overturned not Roe vs. Wade, but the prior partial-birth abortion ban case."^[16] A portait of Nadine Strossen Professor Nadine Strossen is president of the American Civil Liberties Union. ... The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, is a non_governmental organization devoted to defending civil rights and civil liberties in the United States. ... Holding Laws banning partial-birth abortion are unconstitutional if they do not make an exception for the womans health, or if they cannot be reasonably construed to apply only to the partial-birth abortion (intact D&X) procedure and not to other abortion methods. ...

Dissent

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, joined by justices David Souter, John Paul Stevens, and Stephen Breyer, contending that the ruling was an "alarming" one that ignored Supreme Court abortion precedent. Justice Ginsburg's dissent was the only opinion in this case that mentioned the word "privacy". Justice Ginsburg, referring in particular to Planned Parenthood v. Casey, sought to ground the Court's abortion jurisprudence based on concepts of personal autonomy and equal citizenship rather than the Court's previous privacy approach: "Thus, legal challenges to undue restrictions on abortion procedures do not seek to vindicate some generalized notion of privacy; rather, they center on a woman's autonomy to determine her life's course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature."^[2] Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933, Brooklyn, New York) is an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. ... David Hackett Souter (born September 17, 1939) has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1990. ... John Paul Stevens (born April 20, 1920) is currently the most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Stephen Gerald Breyer (born August 15, 1938) is an American attorney, political figure, and jurist. ... Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to control the flow of information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. ... Holding A Pennsylvania law that required spousal notification prior to obtaining an abortion was invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment because it created an undue burden on married women seeking an abortion. ...

Justice Kennedy's opinion in Carhart did not touch upon the question of whether the Court's prior decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey were valid. Dissenting Justice Ginsburg characterized this aspect of the Court's opinion as follows: "Casey's principles, confirming the continuing vitality of ‘the essential holding of Roe,’ are merely ‘assume[d]’ for the moment ... rather than ‘retained’ or ‘reaffirmed.’" Holding Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. ...

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 550

This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 550 (2006-2007) of the United States Reports: Bell Atlantic Corp. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 109th day of the year (110th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 120th day of the year (121st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Wikinews is a free-content news source and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. ...

External links

• Alexi Wright and Ingrid T. Katz "Roe versus Reality — Abortion and Women's Health", New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 355, pp 1–9 (July 6, 2006) (perspective from opponents of the PBA statute).
• American Center for Law and Justice (group defending PBA statute provides info including links to media coverage).
• "Fighting to Protect Women's Health", Center for Reproductive Rights (group opposing PBA statute provides timeline of case).
• PBA Ruling Splits Movement, CovenantNews.com analysis lists pro-life groups condemning this decision due to its affirmation of even late-term abortion.
• Analysis of Gonzales v. Carhart, Colorado Right to Life analysis of Partial Birth Abortion Ban ruling (Gonzales v. Carhart)