U.S. Solicitor General Amicus Brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health
Brief filed at the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Center's challenge to Mississippi's pre-viability abortion ban.
Amicus is the United States Solicitor General.
The brief explains that Casey reaffirmed Roe’s central holding that a State may not prohibit abortion before viability. Roe and Casey were and remain correct and the Court should reject Mississippi’s attempt to upset the careful balance of the viability rule.
Amicus argues that stare decisis requires adherence to Roe and Casey. Indeed, Casey’s application of stare decisis principles is itself another layer of binding precedent. Roe’s central holding remains clear and workable, and it has only been further reinforced by intervening legal and factual developments. And the passage of another three decades, since the decision in Casey means that every American woman of reproductive age has grown up against the backdrop of the right secured by Roe and Casey, which has become even more deeply woven into the Nation’s social fabric.
The brief further argues that the Court should reject Mississippi’s alternative arguments for upholding the ban while nominally maintaining some constitutional protection for abortion. Both alternatives would still require the Court to overrule the central holding of Roe and Casey by rejecting the viability rule. Taking that step would carry all of the stare decisis harms identified in Casey.
This brief was one of over 50 amicus briefs filed supporting this Supreme Court case, which challenges Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. For more information on the case, go to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
