Conservatism in the Courts

Info By the time Reagan left office, he had appointed a near-majority of all sitting judges and named 3 conservative-minded justices to the US Supreme Court. Reaganism: affirmative action and abortion 1989: 2 Court cases occurred Made it more difficult to prove that an employer practiced racial discrimination in hiring Made it easier for white males to argue that they were the victims of reverse discrimination by employers who followed affirmative-action practices 1991: Congress passed legislation that partially reversed the effects of those decision

Info (in 1973, Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court prohibited states from creating any laws that interfered women’s rights to an abortion) This created debate and “pro-choice” advocates were building their case for abortion rights Provoked bitter criticism from Roman Catholics and “right-to-life” groups 1989: abortion reached Court again Webster v. Reproductive Health Services: compromised Roe’s protection of abortion Right-to-life advocates were happy with this at first Pro-choice advocates were shocked into a new militancy 1992: Planned Parenthood v. Casey: states could restrict access to abortion as long as they did not place a “undue burden” on women. Cultural conflict over the unborn was part of the Reagan era’s bequest to the future

Source 1 O- 1980’s C- Abortion P- Emphasize the hypocrisy within America V- Shows how people were being hypocritical L- Does not show the other side

Source 2 O- 1980’s C- shows the abortion debate P- Shows how people were hypocritical V- Shows how men thought that they had more rights than women L- Does not show a woman’s perspective

Source 3 O- 1980’s C- Shows people fighting in front of an abortion clinic P- Show the big difficult that abortion clinics brought V- Shows hypocrisy and oblivion on Americans L- does not show the other view

Comparison Both Source 1 and Source 2 discuss the issue with abortion during Reagan’s era Source 1 suggests that women were being hypocritical where Source 2 suggests that men are hypocritical

Questions Describe Reagan’s main two points that he focused on during his time. Discuss the reactions of Americans to the Roe v. Wade court case in 1973.