Teaching Dobbs as a Contemporary Case Study of Federalism in Action and an Introduction to the Cross-Disciplinary Nature of the Law

Antonia Miceli (Arizona State University), Teaching Dobbs as a Contemporary Case Study of Federalism in Action and an Introduction to the Cross-Disciplinary Nature of the Law, 17 St. Louis U.L.J. Health L. & Pol’y (2024):

With its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion, overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and returned the issue of legal access to an abortion to the states. Prior to Dobbs, reproductive rights and the right to an abortion were firmly situated within the substantive due process and fundamental rights coverage of law school constitutional law courses. But this coverage often falls late in, or completely outside the scope of, the required constitutional law curriculum at U.S. law schools. This Article offers the Dobbs decision as an opportunity for constitutional law professors to begin their coverage of the right to an abortion earlier in the required constitutional law curriculum in a manner that moves away from a strictly “Case-Method” study of law to a more accessible cross-disciplinary study of law.