Mandatory Motherhood
November, 1980
In a convenient exercise of judicial restraint, the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the Hyde Amendment prohibiting the use of Medicaid funds for abortions. By a vote of five to four, the Justices ruled, essentially, that a bad law is not necessarily an unconstitutional law and that Congress has the authority to be stupid. Then they apologized: "It is not the mission of this Court or any other to decide whether [the law] is wise social policy. If that were our mission, not every Justice who has s...
