Word: connors
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...know what they wanted." An alcoholic mother, a drug-addicted father, an absent or neglectful parent are some of the reasons teenagers cite for not going home for help. The fact that only half the minors in Minnesota live with both biological parents persuaded Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to agree with the more liberal Justice John Paul Stevens on the need for judicial bypass...
...good reason, Sandra Day O'Connor is known as the abortion swing vote on the U.S. Supreme Court. In two of the cases last week involving parental notification, O'Connor swayed between the court's evenly balanced liberal and conservative wings. She joined court liberals in a 5-to-4 majority that overturned the Minnesota law requiring adolescents to inform both parents ! before obtaining an abortion. Then she moved rightward to give conservatives a 5-to-4 majority that approved the Minnesota law that offers minors the option of getting permission for abortion from a judge...
Peregrinations such as these have made O'Connor a moving target for antiabortion forces, who are determined to see her provide the decisive fifth vote to overturn or at least neutralize Roe v. Wade. Their goal is to send before the court a succession of laws that will chip away at her ill-defined middle ground, until it is too narrow to stand...
Though she has been unwilling to overturn Roe altogether, O'Connor has voted in favor of several state laws that would restrict abortion. She wrote in a 1983 decision that she could accept such limitations so long as they were not "unduly burdensome" to a pregnant woman. That left open a big question: Just what burdens would the Justice consider too heavy? "This legal fight over abortion is like a game of stud poker," says Roger Evans, an attorney for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "Each decision forces Justice O'Connor to turn over one more card revealing what...
...game has been played for higher stakes since the Webster case last year, in which the court gave states wider latitude to restrict abortion. O'Connor's position was more decisive -- and uncomfortable -- than ever. She voted in favor of the Missouri statute under review (which forbids the use of state funds for abortions). But she balked at the opportunity to let history record that the Supreme Court's first woman was also the one who provided the crucial vote to end abortion rights. "There will be time enough to re-examine Roe," she wrote, "and to do so carefully...