Although two-thirds of the American public wanted to retain a constitutional right to abortion, at least under some circumstances, a five-member majority of the nine-member court proceeded to overturn Roe v. Wade with the declaration that the 49-year-old precedent was “egregiously wrong from the beginning.” Within weeks, abortion became illegal or functionally unavailable in half of the 50 states. 

In another recent decision, the court interpreted the constitutional provision dealing with guns (the Second Amendment) in a manner that ties the hands of states and localities trying to keep guns off the streets as mass shootings continue to shock the country and the world.

This joint public lecture presented by The Law Society of New South Wales and The Royal Society of New South Wales examined how the court came to diverge so sharply from the will of the people and explored the consequences for the Supreme Court as an institution and for American democracy.

Speaker