This text will examine U.S. Supreme Court cases which highlight, feature and illuminate some facets of natural law reasoning since the Court’s decree in Roe v. Wade. For most of our constitutional and legal history, there has been an exhilarating debate about whether natural law commands or encourages certain legal resolutions – even from the time of the Founders. Most would concur that the legal philosophy of Jefferson and other Founders favored a natural law basis for this republic and its corresponding rights. And while the proposed text accepts that the concept and understanding of natural law reasoning has both supporters and detractors in contemporary settings, earlier Supreme Court rulings on controversial subject matter used natural law language with regularity. Since the 1970s, the idea of a perennial, immutable and unassailable natural law has lost favor. And given the recent surge in controversial case law and conflicting decisions on highly charged topics, a return to first principles grounded in nature and natural law might be beneficial. Indeed, the proposed research hopes to gauge its current relevance, usage and reliance in more modern judicial cases.
Table of Content
Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. A Short Summary of the Natural Law Tradition Natural Law Predecessors: A Short History; 2. The Content and Substance of the Natural Law Natural Law Jurisprudence and Its Principles; 3. Natural Law and Abortion: A Post- Roe Evaluation Background and History; 4. Natural Law and the Supreme Court: Sexuality, Sexual Attraction and Procreation; 5. Natural Law and the Supreme Court: Suicide, Euthanasia and Mercy Killing; 6. Natural Law, Religious Expression and the Freedom to Believe; Index.
About the author
Dr. Charles P. Nemeth has spent the vast majority of his professional life in the study and practice of law and justice. He is a recognized expert on professional ethics and the justice system, criminal law jurisprudence, private-sector justice and private security systems as well as the influence of Aquinas and his natural law theory on historic and contemporary jurisprudence.
More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
76,116 Ebooks in this category
