Life Matters

Commissioner Johnston knows attorneys who are actively involved in the abortion debate and on both sides of the issue. Many assert a mastery and working knowledge of Roe v. Wade’s intricacies. But honest lawyers will not make any such claim. Perhaps what is more frightening, he knows many more commentators and reporters who will ‘explain’ the decision at length.  The problem is, this ‘well-known’ decision cannot possibly be explained. It does not and cannot make sense.  Even liberal legal scholars like Alan Dershowitz,1 and Cass Sunstein,2 deny its ability to stand on its own merits. Progressive Professor Laurence Tribe is clear: "One of the most curious things about Roe is that, behind its own verbal smokescreen, the substantive judgment on which it rests is nowhere to be found."3 Edward Lazarus was a Blackmun law clerk who "loved Roe's author like a grandfather." He wrote: "As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method .... Justice Blackmun's opinion provides essentially no reasoning in s