14th Amendment Breakdown: How it Connects to Roe

As the U.S. awaits — and debates — the Supreme Court’s potential overturn of Roe v. Wade, the 14th Amendment is front and center in the national jurisprudence conversation. The 14th has long provided the basis for abortion rights — and many other rights.

But legally speaking, it might not have been the strongest basis for those rights. What would be more likely to hold up in the long term? And are those other rights, including that of same-sex marriage in danger?

We posed those questions, and several others, to Ilya Somin, Professor of Law at George Mason University. In the straightforward, educational way only he could, Professor Somin gave us context on the 14th Amendment, Roe v. Wade, Obergefell v. Hodges, and even some clever, lesser-known legal theories that might arrive on the Supreme Court’s docket in the near future, regardless of how it rules on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Chapters:
0:00-0:55 Words That Shook a Nation
0:56-2:13 Legal Criticism of Roe v. Wade
2:14-5:00 The 14th Amendment
5:01-7:03 How the 14th Became the Cornerstone for Abortion Rights
7:04-8:22 Due Process: Strongest Legal Argument for Abortion?
8:23-10:23 Optimism for Obergefell v. Hodges
10:24-13:16 A Stronger Legal Basis for Abortion?