Mississippi's Originalism: Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health and the Attack on Sexual Freedom

Marc Spindelman (Ohio State University), Mississippi's Originalism: Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health and the Attack on Sexual Freedom, American Prospect (Oct. 19, 2021):

This brief commentary takes a close look at Mississippi’s originalist arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. It shows how Mississippi’s originalism—with its attack on the right to abortion and the general constitutional right to privacy—would destabilize, if not immediately eliminate, well-established constitutional rights protecting sexual freedoms, like contraceptive and intimacy rights, including for heterosexuals. The work notes how the Dobbs Court may attempt to distinguish abortion from other intimacy rights, flags some problems that may arise for the Court if it does, and then traces how a pro-life, originalist decision in Dobbs may galvanize political efforts already afoot legally to reckon with, and rein in, the Supreme Court’s powers.