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NEWS/Vtt CtatUmt $o«t
Thursday, December 1, 2005
Ayotte case may
alter U.S. abortion
Continued from page 1A
ticai proposals from taking effect States could
enact rashes of anti-abortion laws, while
severely limiting the ability of lawyers to get a
hearing on whether the laws violated the con-
StitUti(HL
*Roe has been chij^sed away for years. If this
goes the wrong way, it would permit states to
enact more and more Watantly unconstitutican-
al restrictions," said Dalven, who will argue the
case in the U.S. Supreme Court,
Ihe case is a stealth attack on Roe, said
Dalven. By taking out the backbone of judicial
protection, it could leave Roe as a spineless
shell.
The name Ayotte in the case belongs to New
Hampshire Attcnney General Kelly A. Ayotte
Jdning with Ayotte, the Bush administration
has asked the U.S. scdidtor general to appear
before the Supreme Court, arguing that the
New Hampshire law is constitutional. Ayotte
and the solicitor general argue that states
should have the ri^t to enact abortion restric
tions without encountering head-on legal chal
lenges to their constitutionality
Under the approach proposed by Ayotte and
the Bush administraticMi an anti-abca*tion law
could not be challenged as unacceptable on its
face, or “fadally invalid," except under the
rarest circumstances.
Ayotte and the administration argue that a
law should be brought into court only at the
time that a woman suffers iiyury, for example,
when the anti-abortion provision is applied to
her situation and she is denied the service. (In
legal terminology, this would be called an ‘’as-
applied” basis.) Only then (X)uld lawyers show
that the law is unconstitutional.
If the Supreme Court agrees with Ayotte and
the Bush administration, the case could gut the
pro-choice provisions of a 1992 Supreme Court
decision. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern
Pennsylvania v. Casey which crafted a compro
mise on abOTtion.
In Casey, the court preserved the core prind-
ples of a woman’s right to choose, but gave
states much more leeway to pass anti-abortion
restrictions so long as they provide protections
for women’s life and health and do not place an
‘’undue burden’ on women’s ability to exerdse
thdr rights prior to the ability of a fetus to sur
vive outside the womb.
In Casey, the justices permitted Pennsjdvania
to institute waiting periods before abortions
could be performed and to mandate that doc
tors read a prepared statement, intended to dis
courage patients ftx)m an abortion.
But the court did not permit a provision
requiring a married woman to notify her hus
band of a {^ending abortion because it might
endanger some women who would encounter
domestic violence or interference.
The current nominee for the court, Samuel A.
Alito, wrote an opinion in the low^-court
review of Casey that said the provision requir
ing married women to notify their spouses
should be upheld.
In the years since Casey was dedded, more
than 400 abortion restrictions have been
passed by anti-abortion state lawmakers. Many
are challenged in court before they take effect
by doctors, who ai^ue that the laws are uncon
stitutional invasions of the right to privacy and
will harm future patients.
In the late 1990s, for example, over two dozen
state laws banning certain abortion procedures
were blocked by legal challenges fium doctors,
who argued that the laws were overreaching,
would subject the doctors to arrest and inter
fered with women’s health.
‘’After a law goes into effect, it’s very hard to
challenge it. Most women don’t want to reveal
they are seeking an abortion. There is a time
pressure. It’s very much more difficult,” said
Kathryn Kolbert, an attorney in Philadelphia
who represented pro-choice groups in Casey
The 2003 New Hampshire law at issue in
Ayotte subjects doctors to criminal and dvil
penalties if they do not notify the parent of a
teen 48 hours before performing an abortion. It
never took effect. Instead, it was challenged in
court by Dr. Wayne Goldn^ and several clinics.
‘Tn an emergency I need to be able to go to the
hospital not a courthouse,” Goldner said in a
statement.
The validity of parental notification pei* se will
not be considered by the Supreme Court.
Beyond the legal standard fcM* when an abor
tion restriction can be challenged in court, a sec
ond question the court will review is whether
the New Hampshire law must have an excep>-
tion to parental notification if a young woman’s
health is in peril. The federal district court for
New Hampshire and the First U.S. (Circuit
Court of Appeals, based in Boston, found the
law invalid for this reason.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a pvotal mid
dle-ground vote on abortion cases, will be pre
sent for the oral argument but might not be
part of the court’s decision She is slated to step
down immediately upon the confirmation of a
successor. If remaining justices are evenly
divided, the court could call for new oral argu
ments with her replacement.
The ^otte case will be one of the first abor
tion cases heard by new Chief Justice John
Roberts.
Pressure mounting for California
governor to spare Clips founder
Continued from page 1A
He was convicted by an all-
white jury for the murders of
four people in 1979 during
two separate robberies.
In his original trial, the
main evidence against
Williams was the testimony
of jailhouse informants who
appeals courts have admit
ted had "an incentive to lie in
order to obtain leniency fix)m
the state.S
None of the physical evi
dence found at the crime
scenes could be linked to
Williams, A witness" descrip
tion of a suspect seen leaving
one of the scenes did not fit
Williams, either.
A shotgim shell supposedly
matched a weapon Williams
had bought»several years
earlier, but that gim was in
the possession of a couple
facing serious felony
charges After they claimed
that Williams had confessed
to them, the investigation
against them was dropped.
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The trial was later moved
from Los Angeles to
Tbrrance, a predominantly
white, conservative area,
and prosecutor, Robert
Martin, not only successfully
cliallenged all the Afiiceui- /
Americans in the jury pool,
but was said to have used
inflammatory "racist" lan
guage.
In his closing argument,
Martin likened WiUiams to a
Bengal tiger in the zoo and
said that "in his environ
ment, “he would behave like
the tiger in its natural habi
tat. The state Supreme
Court later censured Martin
twice for his racist practices.
Death sentences he won in
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twp other cases were over
turned because of racism.
In the clemency petition
filed to California Supreme
Court calls on
Schwarzenegger to "save
Stanley Wiliams in the
name of so many who see
this man as a symbol of hope
and purpose in their own
lives.”
As the countdown
approaches a lawyer for the
Wiliams camp, Jonathan
Harris, expressed hope of a
victory
*1 think (5ov.
Schwarzenegger is a consci
entious man and we trust
that he will take this matter
very seriously” he said.
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