concluding that abortion providers “against whom [abortion regulations] directly operate” but who had not “been prosecuted, or threatened with prosecution, for violation of the State’s abortion statutes[,] ... should not be required to await and undergo a criminal prosecution as the sole means of seeking relief’ on their constitutional claims
How later courts described this case
- concluding that abortion providers “against whom [abortion regulations] directly operate” but who had not “been prosecuted, or threatened with prosecution, for violation of the State’s abortion statutes[,] ... should not be required to await and undergo a criminal prosecution as the sole means of seeking relief’ on their constitutional claims
- finding physicians challenging an abortion statute had standing to do so “despite the fact that the record does not disclose that any one of them has been prosecuted, or threatened with prosecution.... They should not be required to await and undergo a criminal prosecution as the sole means of seeking relief.”
- holding that physicians, asserting the rights of their patients, have standing to challenge the constitutionality of a criminal abortion statute even though “the record does not disclose that any one of them has been prosecuted, or threatened with prosecution, for violation of the State’s abortion statutes”
- concluding that the court “need not pass upon the status of these additional appellants in this suit, for the issues are sufficiently and adequately presented by Doe and the physician-appellants, and nothing is gained or lost by the presence or absence of the [others]”
Written by the judges who cited it.
Later courts went against this
Abrogated on other grounds by Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022)
410 U.S. 179, 189 (1973), abrogated on other grounds by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 597 U.S. 215
Distinguished
Distinguished by San Diego County Gun Rights Committee v. Reno, 98 F.3d 1121 (1996)
In Rincon Band, we distinguished Bolton on two grounds.
The opinion
Mr. Justice Rehnquist,
dissenting.
The holding in Roe v. Wade, ante, p. 113, that state abortion laws can withstand constitutional scrutiny only if the State can demonstrate a compelling state interest, apparently compels the Court’s close scrutiny of the various provisions in Georgia’s abortion statute. Since, as indicated by my dissent in Wade, I view the compelling-state-interest standard as an inappropriate measure of the constitutionality of state abortion laws, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding.