"In one case, Sarah Weddington, a poised but inexperienced advocate before the Court, argued on behalf of the women hoping to overturn an 1856 Texas law restricting abortions. Unaware the Court was focusing on jurisdiction questions, she immediately began discussing the woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. Stewart pointed out that there were several threshold questions to be dealt with first, including the jurisdiction issue. Stewart’s questions drew Douglas’s attention. As always during oral argument, he was a flurry of activity. Douglas listened with one ear, wrote, listened a moment, requested a book from the library, listened again, asked an occasional question, signed his correspondence for the day, listened again, made sarcastic comments to the Chief on his left or Stewart on his right. Now, for a change, Douglas stopped dead. He jotted a quick note to his clerks. “I need considerable research” on the jurisdiction question, he wrote. “Would one of you take it on.?” Weddington replied to Stewart that she saw no jurisdiction problem. Under earlier Court decisions, federal courts could intervene in state courts when constitutional issues had been raised. The Court had a number of bases for striking down Texas’s abortion law. “We had originally brought the suit alleging both the due process clause, equal protection clause, and the Ninth Amendment, and a variety of others,” Weddington began. “Since-“ “And anything else that might have been appropriate?” White interjected sarcastically. “Yes, yeah,” Weddington said, dissolving into laughter for a moment. But White had pinned Weddington where he wanted her. She had made a broad constitutional claim, the kind a majority of the Court normally opposed. “Well, do you or don’t you say that the constitutional right you insist on reaches up until the time of birth, or what?” White asked “… The Constitution, as I see it, gives protection to people after birth,” she offered. Douglas then turned the questioning back to the issue they were supposed to be considering, the federal jurisdiction question, and Weddington’s time soon lapsed. When Assistant Attorney General of Texas, Jay Floyd, began presenting the state’s case, Marshall returned to the issue of abortion. When, he inquired, does an unborn fetus come to have full constitutional rights? “At any time, Mr. Justice; we make no distinction …” Floyd replied. “There is life from the moment of impregnation.” “And do you have any scientific data to support that?” Marshall asked. Well, we begin, Mr. Justice, in our brief with the development of the human embryo, carrying it through to the development of the fetus, from about seven to nine days after conception” Floyd answered. “Well, what about six days?” Marshall asked, eliciting a mild chuckle from the audience."