Supreme Court decisions
Definition Rulings made by the highest court in
the United States
A number of U.S. Supreme Court decisions had an impact
during the 1980’s and future decades.
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger headed the Supreme
Court from 1969 until his retirement in 1986, when
President Ronald Reagan appointed conservative
federalist William H. Rehnquist as chief justice. The
Supreme Court handed down a wide range of deci-
sions during the 1980’s that affected abortion, affir-
mative action, women’s and gay rights, education,
and freedom of speech and religion.
Abortion After the Supreme Court’s landmarkRoe
v. Wade(1973) decision legalizing abortion, state
and local governments immediately started passing
complex laws aimed at weakening the impact ofRoe.
As a result, the Court spent much of the 1980’s hear-
ing challenges to these state laws, and antiabortion
groups hoped that the Court’s rulings in these cases
would ultimately lead to the overturning ofRoe.
AfterRoe, the federal government’s Medicaid pro-
gram began covering the costs of abortions for low-
income women. In 1976, Congress passed the Hyde
Amendment, which barred the use of Medicaid funds
for abortions except when the mother’s life was in
danger and in cases of rape or incest. A group of in-
digent women sued the federal government, chal-
lenging the constitutionality of the amendment. In
the first of many abortion decisions during this de-
cade,Harris v. McRae(1980) upheld the constitu-
tionality of the Hyde Amendment. The Court ruled
that a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy did
not entitle her to receive government funding for
that choice.
In three 1983 decisions,City of Akron v. Akron Cen-
ter for Reproductive Health,Planned Parenthood Associa-
tion of Kansas City v. Ashcroft, andSimopoulos v. Vir-
ginia, the Court struck down state and local laws that,
among other things, imposed a twenty-four-hour
waiting period between the signing of a consent
form and having an abortion and required minors
to receive parental consent before having an abor-
tion. Citing its 1983 abortion decisions, the Court in
Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gy-
necologists(1986) overturned portions of a Pennsyl-
vania antiabortion law because it infringed on a
woman’s right to an abortion. The Court said that
states could not require doctors to inform women
seeking abortions about potential risks and about
available benefits for prenatal care and childbirth.
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services(1989) was the
Court’s last abortion decision that pro-choice advo-
cates believed weakenedRoe v. Wade.The 5-4 deci-
sion upheld a Missouri law that barred state employ-
ees and facilities from performing abortions. The
Websterruling was narrow in that it did not affect pri-
vate doctors’ offices or clinics where most abortions
were performed. However,Websterdid give state leg-
islatures new authority to limit a woman’s right to an
abortion without reversingRoe v. Wade.Affirmative Action and Discrimination During the
1980’s, the federal government had various laws and
affirmative action programs in place in an effort to
encourage more minorities and women to earn col-
lege degrees or to own their own businesses.The Eighties in America Supreme Court decisions 931
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger presided over the Court during the
first half of the 1980’s.(Library of Congress)