"If “Brown v. Board of Education” is America’s most hallowed modern Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade is surely its most controversial. In 1973, Roe v. Wade struck down the abortion laws of most of the states in a single opinion, but it did not settle the question of abortion rights in America. Far from it: Roe was merely the opening event in a political and legal struggle over reproductive rights that continue to this day. Roe energized new social movements that eventually divided the two major political parties over abortion rights and reshaped their respective coalitions. Securing and expanding the right to abortion became a central concern of the women’s movement, while opposition to Roe v. Wade awakened the sleeping giant of religious conservatives, who in turn helped shape the contemporary Republican Party. In the process, Roe v. Wade became a central issue in federal judicial nominations, symbolizing not only the issue of reproductive freedom but also the larger question of the proper role of courts in a democratic society. Attacking and defending the principles and reasoning of Roe v. Wade has been a central preoccupation of constitutional theorists ever since it was decided. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that, more than any other Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade has defined the constitutional jurisprudence and the constitutional debates of the modern era."