Saturday, July 30, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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The Dobbs case is not an exercise in constitutional interpretation but an assertion of political power by the Supreme Court.
Under the Fourth Amendment, the right of the people to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated. This is an enumerated right.
A state statute requiring forced birth is a seizure of a pregnant woman’s uterus and its contents by the state, with the woman acting as the unwilling custodian on behalf of the state. This is a fact; no inference is required. The only question is whether this seizure is “reasonable.”
Forced childbirth imposed by the state is involuntary servitude to the state, since the pregnant woman is performing a service for the state and at its direction. This is forbidden under the 13th Amendment’s proscription against “involuntary servitude.” Again, no inference is required.
All that aside, the tissue designated “fetus” or “embryo” is part of a woman’s body and was afforded no independent legal standing by the Founders under our Constitution. While some would imbue developing offspring with legal “personhood” by means of selective religious ideology, this is not how our laws were intended to work. If we want to create a new class of citizens, the mechanism is not judicial fiat but amendment of the Constitution.
Until this happens, the elimination of a citizen’s Fourth Amendment rights in favor of an entity utterly devoid of any legal standing under the Constitution is unreasonable, even without reference to the prohibition of involuntary servitude.
