Congress, Politics, Books
and American History

C-SPAN Radio continues its special series of oral arguments from modern landmark cases. In part one of the two part oral argument in “Jane Roe, et al v. Henry Wade,” hear the historic case that launched the legal battle on abortion and the right to privacy. Norma McCorvey hired attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington to file a suit under the alias Jane Roe so she could obtain an abortion. The defendant in the case was Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade. The District Court ruled in Norma McCorvey's favor on the merits, but declined to grant an injunction against the enforcement of the laws barring abortion. The case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal, which heard arguments twice, due to some of the court’s dissatisfaction with the attorneys and to accommodate two of the associate justices who joined the court late in the initial argument.