Historic Supreme Court Cases--Abortion, Episode 3: The Chase Court: Rewriting the Nation After Appomattox

In this episode we explore the Chase Court (1864–1873) as the interpreter of a Constitution remade by war, emancipation, and the Reconstruction Amendments. The Court announced a new national guarantee of rights while remaining divided over how far liberty should extend, especially for women.

Through cases like Texas v. White, Ray Turner, Hepburn v. Griswold, the Slaughterhouse Cases, and Bradwell v. Illinois, the episode considers how the Court’s shifting balance between expansive ideals and retrenchment shaped the limits of federal protection—and how those tensions would affect hypothetical rulings on issues like abortion.