U.S. Supreme Court
The Lochner era marked the beginning of the US Supreme Court’s (SCOTUS) expansion of its powers into unenumerated rights, and by extension, Americans’ economic and social lives, which persists today.
The development of substantive due process brought many unenumerated rights under the Constitution, meaning SCOTUS had the power to expand and protect them. But as seen with abortion, substantive due process also made it possible for SCOTUS to overturn unenumerated rights; after all, an institution that can grant rights may also take them away. The end of Roe v. Wade was a powerful lesson that personal freedoms depend upon courts and judges being willing to defend and protect them.
The League is invested in and carefully watching an important redistricting case, Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. The case is an appeal from a ruling striking down South Carolina’s congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
During the 2022 Supreme Court term, the League of Women Voters filed amicus briefs in four cases: Moore v. Harper, Allen v. Milligan, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and 303 Creative, LLC v. Elenis.
We recap the case and its impact on voting rights, discrimination, and redistricting.
In June 2022, the US Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion. This ruling eliminated a fundamental right that women and people who may become pregnant held for nearly fifty years and left the right to abortion up to federal and state legislation.
One year after Dobbs, 20 states are enforcing more limited abortion bans than before the ruling, including 14 states that have banned abortion at conception. Additionally, many have implemented other restrictions that make abortion less accessible.
WASHINGTON — Today, League of Women Voters of the United States President Dr. Deborah Turner issued the following statement after the Supreme Court held that a Colorado website designer may discriminate against same-sex couples in her wedding website business based upon her right to free expression under the First Amendment.
LWVUS President Dr. Deborah Turner issued the following statement after the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
The US Supreme Court affirmed the role of state court judicial review in a major victory for checks and balances and the constitutional rights of voters.
One year ago today, the Supreme Court of the US took away our right to bodily autonomy.
LWV President Dr. Deborah Turner launches her three-part blog series about the impact of Dobbs and other anti-abortion legislation with a look at the medical impact of anti-abortion laws.
In March 2023, LWV staff met with four women attorneys — Trudy Levy, Katherine Mazzaferri, Cynthia Hill, and Maureen Thornton Syracuse — who pioneered the League’s litigation work between the 1970s and 1990s. The goal was to learn about their experiences litigating alongside Leagues during those critical decades.
On February 3, 2023, the North Carolina Supreme Court voted to re-hear Harper v. Hall, a case concerning redistricting. The North Carolina Supreme Court’s upcoming decision could upend a pending case at the Supreme Court that threatens our current system of political checks and balances.