Rust v. Sullivan
Encyclopedia
Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U.S. 173 (1991), was a United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 case decided in 1991. The case concerned the legality and constitutionality of Department of Health and Human Services regulations on the use of funds spent by the U.S. federal government to promote family planning
Family planning
Family planning is the planning of when to have children, and the use of birth control and other techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sexuality education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and...

(Title X). With Title X of the Public Health Service Act
Public Health Service Act
The Public Health Service Act is a United States federal law enacted in 1944. The full act is captured under Title 42 of the United States Code "The Public Health and Welfare", Chapter 6A "Public Health Service"....

, Congress prohibited the funds from being "used in programs where abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

 is a method of family planning." In 1988, the Republican-appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services issued new regulations that prohibited projects receiving these funds from not only providing abortions, but also counseling, advising, or promoting the idea that a woman seek an abortion. These regulations were challenged on the grounds that they were not permissibly within the scope of the statute
Statute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...

 and that they violated the First
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...

, Fourth
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause...

, and Fifth Amendments
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...

 to the U.S. Constitution.

In its decision, the Court ruled that the regulations did not violate the legislation in question or the Constitution. Chief Justice William Rehnquist
William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer, jurist, and political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States...

 wrote for the majority in finding that the regulations were a permissible construction of statutory
Statute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...

 law, that they do not violate the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...

 free speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...

 rights of the recipients, and that they do not violate the Fifth Amendment right of women to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...

 as established in Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...

.

One attorney for the government in this case was Chief Justice
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...

 William Rehnquist's
William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer, jurist, and political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States...

 successor, John Roberts, who was then Principal Deputy Solicitor General
United States Solicitor General
The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June...

 of the United States. A brief for the case, of which Roberts was a coauthor, argued for overruling Roe:

"We continue to believe that [Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...

] was wrongly decided and should be overruled. As more fully explained in our briefs, filed as amicus curiae
Amicus curiae
An amicus curiae is someone, not a party to a case, who volunteers to offer information to assist a court in deciding a matter before it...

, in Hodgson v. Minnesota
Hodgson v. Minnesota
Hodgson v. Minnesota, 497 U.S. 417 , was a United States Supreme Court abortion rights case that dealt with whether a state law may require notification of both parents before a minor can obtain an abortion. The law in question provided a judicial alternative.-Issue:The case concerned a Minnesota law...

, 110 S. Ct. 2926 (1990); Webster v. Reproductive Health Services
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490 , was a United States Supreme Court decision on July 3, 1989 upholding a Missouri law that imposed restrictions on the use of state funds, facilities, and employees in performing, assisting with, or counseling on abortions...

, 109 S. Ct. 3040 (1989); Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, was a United States Supreme Court case involving a challenge to Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act of 1982....

, 476 U.S. 747 (1986); and City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health
City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health
City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, 462 U.S. 416 , was a case in which the United States Supreme Court affirmed its abortion rights jurisprudence...

, 462 U.S. 416 (1983), the Court's conclusions in Roe that there is a fundamental right to an abortion and that government has no compelling interest in protecting prenatal human life throughout pregnancy find no support in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution." http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&court=US&case=/us/500/173.html


The brief in question lists the following authors: Michael J. Astrue
Michael J. Astrue
Michael James Astrue is an American lawyer and, under the pen name A. M. Juster, a poet and critic. He has served as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration since 2007.-Career:...

, General Counsel
General Counsel
A general counsel is the chief lawyer of a legal department, usually in a corporation or government department. The term is most used in the United States...

; Joel Mangel, Deputy Chief Counsel; Carol C. Conrad, Attorney, Department of Health and Human Services; Kenneth W. Starr, Solicitor General
United States Solicitor General
The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June...

; Stuart M. Gerson
Stuart M. Gerson
Stuart M. Gerson was the acting Attorney General during the Clinton Administration, serving in the early months of 1993.Gerson was a debate coach for President George H. W. Bush during the 1988 campaign. He went on to serve on President-elect Bush's transition team...

, Assistant Attorney General
United States Assistant Attorney General
Many of the divisions and offices of the United States Department of Justice are headed by an Assistant Attorney General.The President of the United States appoints individuals to the position of Assistant Attorney General with the advice and consent of the Senate...

; John G. Roberts, Jr., Deputy Solicitor General; Jeffrey P. Minear
Jeffrey P. Minear
Jeffrey P. Minear is Counselor to Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.. Minear began work at the Supreme Court on September 11, 2006. Previously he had been senior litigation counsel and assistant to the Solicitor General, Department of Justice ....

, Assistant to the Solicitor General; Anthony J. Steinmeyer, Lowell v. Sturgill, Jr., Attorneys. With Roberts's nomination to the Supreme Court in 2005, the positions he advocated at the time have come under increased scrutiny, particularly as they related to the emotional issues surrounding abortion.

See also


External links

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