Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 156

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

9 

BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., dissenting 

over,  enforced  the  constitutional  principles  Roe  had  de-
clared.  See,  e.g.,  Ohio  v.  Akron  Center  for  Reproductive 
Health,  497  U. S.  502  (1990);  Hodgson  v.  Minnesota,  497 
U. S.  417  (1990);  Simopoulos  v.  Virginia,  462  U. S.  506 
(1983); Planned Parenthood Assn. of Kansas City, Mo., Inc. 
v.  Ashcroft,  462  U. S.  476  (1983);  H.  L.  v.  Matheson,  450 
U. S.  398  (1981);  Bellotti  v.  Baird,  443  U. S.  622  (1979); 
Planned Parenthood of Central Mo. v. Danforth, 428 U. S. 
52 (1976).
  Then,  in  Casey,  the  Court  considered  the  matter  anew, 
and again upheld Roe’s core precepts.  Casey is in signifi-
cant measure a precedent about the doctrine of precedent—
until  today,  one  of  the  Court’s  most  important.    But  we 
leave for later that aspect of the Court’s decision.  The key
thing now is the substantive aspect of the Court’s consid-
ered conclusion that “the essential holding of Roe v. Wade 
should be retained and once again reaffirmed.”  505 U. S., 
at 846. 

Central  to  that  conclusion  was  a  full-throated  restate-
ment  of  a  woman’s  right  to  choose.  Like  Roe,  Casey
grounded that right in the Fourteenth Amendment’s guar-
antee of “liberty.”  That guarantee encompasses realms of 
conduct  not  specifically  referenced  in  the  Constitution: 
“Marriage is mentioned nowhere” in that document, yet the
Court  was  “no  doubt  correct”  to  protect  the  freedom  to 
marry “against state interference.”  505 U. S., at 847–848. 
And  the  guarantee  of  liberty  encompasses  conduct  today
that  was  not  protected  at  the  time  of  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment.  See id., at 848.  “It is settled now,” the Court 
said—though it was not always so—that “the Constitution
places limits on a State’s right to interfere with a person’s 
most basic decisions about family and parenthood, as well 
as bodily integrity.”  Id., at 849 (citations omitted); see id., 
at  851  (similarly  describing  the  constitutional  protection 
given to “personal decisions relating to marriage, procrea-
tion, contraception, [and] family relationships”).  Especially