I would like to share an edited version of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which I prepared for the 2022 Barnett/Blackman supplement. I distilled the 213-page decision down to about 50 pages. For the casebook, I’ll probably whittle away another 10-15 pages. I need some time to digest the case some more, and decide what to keep and what to remove.
I found this case easier to edit than Bruen. For starters, both the majority and dissent had lengthy appendices, which padded the page count. Moreover, Bruen established an entire new framework for originalist decision-making. I erred on the side of over-inclusion. Dobbs, by contrast, mostly sparred over Casey. And the dissent played the same notes over and over and over and over again: what about Griswold, Lawrence, Obergefell? After a while, I started deleting those repetitive arguments.
Now that I’ve finished reading both opinions–nearly 350 pages in two days!–I can start to write about them. Stay tuned.
