CNN - Roe vs. Wade


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Who's Who in Roe vs. Wade?

Lead plaintiff

Norma McCorvey was pregnant with her third child when she was recruited to be "Jane Roe," the lead plaintiff in the Roe vs. Wade class-action lawsuit. Ironically, she never had an abortion, but instead delivered a girl, whom she gave up for adoption. The identity of Jane Roe remained a secret to the public until the 1980s, when McCorvey disclosed her real name. She wrote a book about her life titled "I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice." In 1995, McCorvey changed her allegiance in the abortion-rights cause and became a staunch anti-abortion activist.

Defendant

Henry Wade was the Dallas County district attorney who was enforcing the Texas abortion laws when he was named as a defendant in the Roe vs. Wade lawsuit. As such, he represented the state of Texas in the case. During his career, the former FBI special agent also prosecuted Jack Ruby, the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald. He left his post as district attorney in 1986. Now 83, Wade practices with the Dallas law firm of Geary, Porter and Donovan.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs

Linda Coffee was one of the two lawyers who represented the plaintiffs in the Roe vs. Wade case. She was more involved in the trial portion than the appeal, which reached the Supreme Court. She and attorney Sarah Weddington were law school classmates at the University of Texas. Coffee, 55, now practices law in Dallas, mostly representing debtors in bankruptcy cases. "I'm somewhat surprised there is so much debate," she said of the abortion issue. "I would have guessed the question of abortion would be pretty passé now. I thought there would be more progress in birth control by now."

Sarah Weddington and attorney Linda Coffee filed the Roe vs. Wade class-action lawsuit on behalf of U.S. women. Weddington convinced Norma McCorvey to become the lead plaintiff as "Jane Roe." After McCorvey converted to the anti-abortion camp in 1995, Weddington said she wished she had chosen a different representative for the cause. Now 52, Weddington is an attorney in Austin, Texas, and teaches undergraduate courses in the Government and American Studies Department at the University of Texas. She wrote the book "A Question of Choice," is a public speaker and raises money for groups that support a woman's right to a legal abortion, such as Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. "I never thought I was walking into history when I started this case," she said.

Attorneys for the defendants

Jay Floyd was the assistant state attorney general who argued the Roe vs. Wade case for Texas when it was first heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971. Floyd died in the mid-1990s.

Robert C. Flowers was the assistant attorney general who represented Texas when the case was argued the second time before the Supreme Court -- in 1972. Flowers is now executive director of the Commission on Judicial Conduct in Austin, Texas.

Supreme Court justices

Warren E. Burger was appointed to the court by President Richard Nixon in 1969 to replace the liberal Earl Warren as chief justice. Despite a strong conservative bent, Burger voted with the majority in Roe vs. Wade. In his concurring opinion, he explained, "I do not read the court's holdings today as having the sweeping consequences attributed to them by the dissenting justices; the dissenting views discount the reality that the vast majority of physicians observe the standards of their profession, and act only on the basis of carefully deliberated medical judgments relating to life and health. Plainly, the court today rejects any claim that the Constitution requires abortions on demand." He left the court in 1986 and was replaced by William Rehnquist. He died June 25, 1995.

Harry A. Blackmun authored the Supreme Court's majority opinion in the Roe vs. Wade decision, basing the ruling on the constitutional right to privacy. "This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy," he wrote. In another case involving abortion rights, Blackmun strongly dissented in 1989 in Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services, which placed limitations on the right to an abortion. In taking his stance, the justice noted, a "chill wind blows." Blackmun joined the court in 1970. He was nominated by President Richard Nixon, after his first two nominees were rejected by the Senate. Blackmun retired in 1994 and was replaced by Justice Stephen G. Breyer.

William Brennan was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later admitted the appointment was a mistake, after Brennan developed into a liberal and influential jurist. Brennan resigned because of health problems in 1990, and died July 24, 1997.

William O. Douglas -- Appointed in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he held the record for the longest continuous service on the court: 36 years, 7 months. He retired in 1975 with a reputation for commitment to individual rights and a powerful distrust of the government. He died January 19, 1980. In his concurring opinion in Roe vs. Wade, he wrote: "Elaborate argument is hardly necessary to demonstrate that childbirth may deprive a woman of her preferred lifestyle and force upon her a radically different and undesired future."

Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American to serve on the court. He was best known for his leadership in civil rights and was the chief counsel in the historic Brown vs. Board of Education case, which led to school desegregation. He was appointed a justice by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. He resigned in 1991 and was replaced by Justice Clarence Thomas. Marshall died of heart failure on January 24, 1993.

Lewis F. Powell Jr. joined the court in 1971 after being appointed by President Richard Nixon. He was a moderate on most issues, and fell in the middle of some of the idealogical issues that faced the court. He joined the majority in the Roe vs. Wade case but did not author a concurring opinion. He died June 26, 1987.

William H. Rehnquist was one of the two dissenters in Roe vs. Wade, after he cited a "fundamental disagreement" with the majority opinion. Rehnquist joined the court in 1972 and, as a conservative, was often in the minority. That changed as the court became more conservative. President Ronald Reagan appointed Rehnquist as chief justice in 1986; he is the only justice remaining from the Roe case. In his dissenting opinion, he wrote, "the Court's opinion will accomplish the seemingly impossible feat of leaving this area of the law more confused than it found it."

Potter Stewart joined the court in 1959 after being nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and was often a centrist voice. In his concurring opinion in Roe vs. Wade, he wrote, "It is evident that the Texas abortion statute infringes that right directly. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a more complete abridgment of a constitutional freedom than that worked by the inflexible criminal statute now in force in Texas."

Byron White was the second justice, in addition to William Rehnquist, to dissent in the Roe vs. Wade case, after opposing the "raw judicial power" in the majority decision. White was appointed to the court by President John F. Kennedy in 1962; he resigned in 1993. He wrote in his dissenting opinion: "I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the court's judgment. The court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes."