Appeals Court Names Panel to Hear Motion on Roe V. Wade

(Elliot Inst.) A federal appeals court has named a judicial panel to hear arguments in McCorvey vs. Hill, a case that could lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but says it will not hear oral arguments in the case.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans named three judges to hear Norma McCorvey's motion to have Roe v. Wade revisited by the U.S. Supreme Court. McCorvey was the original plaintiff in Roe, which struck down laws prohibiting abortion. McCorvey filed the motion under Rule 60, which allows litigants to petition to the court to overturn their cases based on new evidence that was not available at the time of the original ruling.

The judges on the panel, Judges Edith Holland Jones, Edward Prado, and Jacques L. Wiener, said they will base their decision on written arguments submitted by McCorvey's attorneys, but will not hear oral arguments. The state attorney general's office in Texas, the defendant in the original Roe case, is not opposing McCorvey's motion, and the appeals court has denied a motion by a group of pro-abortion attorneys to file an amicus brief in the case.

McCorvey's motion includes over 5,000 pages of evidence attesting to the humanity of the unborn child and the damage abortion causes to women, including affidavits from more than 1,000 women who say they have been harmed by abortion. The evidence also includes affidavits submitted by the Elliot Institute documenting abortion risks.

Allan Parker of the Justice Foundation, which is handling McCorvey's case, said he was surprised by the court's decision not to hear oral arguments, but that he is pleased with the judges selected for the panel and thinks they may want the case to go to the Supreme Court.

The appeals court decided to hear McCorvey vs. Hill after a lower court judge ruled that two much time had passed for the court to rehear her case. Parker said the Supreme Court has overturned rulings issued as long as 41 years ago, longer than the 31 years that have passed since Roe.

Source: Elliot Institute
Publish Date: March 1, 2004