Week 8 - Update on Supreme Court Case

As of today I have researched new things about the court case of Roe vs. Wade. I found out some very interesting facts about the case in 1973 as well as what "Jane Roe" is doing today.

Apparently she had been at the Notre Dame graduation ceremony when President Barack Obama had been speaking. She was protesting the protestors that had come to speak about how they do not believe in what President Barack Obama stands for. Those different ideals include things such as: Abortion and Contraception, the War, and other very liberal things. Because Notre Dame is a Catholic University, they feel that President Barack Obama's precense was rude and unwelcome since he is a democrat and that he represents things that the Catholic Church looks down upon. By the end of the day, she had been arrested.

Going back to the court case, I have been very successful in finding out information because the Roe vs. Wade case is still such a controversy and people still are fighting for and/or against it. This woman has some real guts for going around and getting arrested so many times. I am almost positive that it is such a hard thing to be in the media eye as a person that has no morals or is going to hell. And maybe it is not the media’s eyes but it is more so the people of the United States who have the idea in their head that she can’t be a good person because she believes in something that their God has “said” is punishable. It is just amazing to me that people are so hateful towards each other over something that they allow to rule over them. I do not believe faith is bad, but religion blinds people from things that in any other situation they would be so rational about. It's truly amazing what people will do to stand up for their beliefs.

Facts of the Case

On December 13, 1971, a pregnant single woman named Norma Leah McCorvey, also named “Jane Roe”, in the historical U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit of Roe vs. Wade, went into court to begin a very long journey in women’s rights. “Wade” was district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, Hendry B. Wade.

"The majority opinion was written by Harry Blackmun. Concurring opinions were written by Potter Stewart, Warren Burger, and William O. Douglas. The Dissenting opinions were written by William Rehnquist and Byron White."
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/gov/bl_roe_a.htm

When Norma Leah McCorvey brought suit to the Supreme Court, it was because she was pregnant. Before she brought the case to the court, a woman with no child wanted to change the laws so that she could have an abortion if contraception did not work, unpreparedness of parenthood, or impairment of the woman’s health. She said that it was against her constitutional rights as well as any other woman who would like to terminate her pregnancy in the first few months of pregnancy.

The lawyers that had argued the case were:

"Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee for the plaintiff, and John Tolle, Jay Floyd, and Robert Flowers as the defendant’s lawyers. The judges that were the majority include: Harry Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Chief Justice Warren Burger, William O. Douglas, Thurgood Marshall, Lewis Powell, and Potter Stewart. The judges that were the dissent include: William Rehnquist and Byron White."
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/gov/bl_roe_a.htm

The state law violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects against state action the right to privacy, including a woman’s qualified right to terminate her pregnancy. The State cannot override that right but it has legitimate interest in protecting the health of the woman and potentiality of human life.

The case was reargued once on October 11, 1972, and then finally decided on January 22, 1973.

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/gov/bl_roe_a.htm

Week 7 - Pacific Heights

In the movie “Pacific Heights” a tenant comes in and decides to drive the landlords absolutely insane. The rights of the landlords seem to be blurred in the movie because of the fact that laws are different in every state. In San Francisco, California, apparently if you take possession of the room you attempt to rent before any rent is given to the landlord and change the locks the landlord has to evict you through the court because the tenant now has rights. Although the rights were forcibly taken, they are granted by the state and therefore have to be fulfilled by the landlord or legally removed from the premises. This was the law in the movie. I am not sure if this is true in the state of California. To my knowledge if a lease was never signed nor consideration given then the tenant has no legal right and the landlord would have a certain amount of time to remove the tenant from the premises.

Another law that I know of that is in San Francisco is that if a person who signed a lease and has children but decides to not pay their rent, they have six (6) months free to be able to find another home. But they can only do so if they have children.

Laws like that tend to protect the tenant over the landlord. I personally believe it should be the other way around. There are a million more risks being a landlord than a tenant. The landlord would have to open his/her home to a stranger and take a lot of liabilities that would/could end with court, fees, and/or the loss of the home entirely. As far as having a family and being kicked out on the streets, I can understand why the courst would feel it was correct to keep a family in a home for a period of time, but for six months is rediculous. It should never be that long.

Instant Extra Credit

Three Names I have been called: Eugenia, Gina, G.

Three Jobs I have had in my life (include unpaid if you have to): Waitress, Student Worker, Peer Mentor

Three Places I Have Lived: Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Henderson, Nevada – Chalkis, Greece

Three TV Shows that I watch: Lost, The L Word, The Tutors

Three places I have been: Greece, Mexico, Italy

People that e-mail me regularly: Jenny Stepp, My Dad, and my Aunt Karren

Three of my favorite foods: ANY Greek food, Pasta, and Shrimp

Three cars I have driven: My Buick Regal, My dads Infiniti Q45, and My moms Jaguar XJ8

Three things I am looking forward to: Relaxing this weekend, Relaxing this summer break, and hopfully going to Miami in the next 6 months.

Week 6 - Greed Is Good

Wall Street is a messy place. It is loud and crazy. Yet, the most interesting thing of Wall Street and “big business” is all the people that take and take without earning it. Getting a one million dollar bonus is outrageous. I suppose if you make five billion it is absolutely nothing, but when the person who developed the R.E.E.T. earns a two billion dollar bonus in 2007, you wonder how that money was accumulated in the first place.

It scares me to think that people will buy a business and rip it to shreds like in the movie “Wall Street”. There can be so much more to come from fixing up a place and then giving jobs to more people while still earning millions of dollars. People are lazy these days. They want a quick fix and move on to the next thing. It truly sickens me. A great analogy would be that banks and other individual companies are like guys in an office betting on a football game, who are other companies and peoples jobs. Those guys take their bets and throw in the dice. At the end, someone wins and someone loses. It’s just more often that everyone below the position of a CEO or President seems to lose. Funny how that works out?

"The anger at Wall Street only grew at the news that Merrill Lynch, after reporting $15 billion of losses, had rushed to pay $4 billion in bonuses on the eve of its merger with Bank of America." To me that’s such a waste. People are hiding money to pay other people and themselves while companies, families, individuals, cities, and the entire country falls apart. What a disappointment in American culture, and even more in Americans who actually say they are Americans. What a disgrace.

Week 5 - Bong Hits For Jesus

I completely agree with Professor of Law Steven B. Duke of Yale Law School. I truly believe that if we legalize marijuana that there would be a lot less violence and a whole lot more money to go around. If you look at the facts that he explained such as, “…Marijuana is a relatively safe drug. No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose nor has anyone gone on a violent rampage as a result of a marijuana high.” it just shows that at the very least, marijuana should be legalized. I am a believer in that if you smoke, drink, shoot up or anything else that deals with drug use, you will do it. People always do what they want, legally or not. So, we might as well make a profit from it. Also, we might as well help other countries and our own country by stopping all the gang wars and violence on our streets and in our homes.

This situation is not going to be over soon, and it is not going to end easily. But if we get off our white horses and stop looking at what is legal and not legal compared to what is right and what will be the best outcome, will only allow good to come from it. Just because something has been banned for such a long time does not mean that it was the right thing to do. This law has been in effect since 1933. If you look at slavery, it has been around for more than 5,000 years but we as human beings and Americans know it is bad to have slaves, then why can’t we look past this outdated law of illegal marijuana.

In the end, people of all ages, races, and backgrounds will continue smoking, quit smoking, start smoking, try it, hate it, love it, like it, or never even touch it. So, we need to stop being so blinded by our moral and ethical stupidity and start doing what will be the best for our country and for its people.