As noted in this previous posts, Norma McCorvey of Dallas, the original plaintiff in the seminal anti-abortion case Roe v. Wade, has been attempting over the past couple of years to persuade the federal courts to allow her to challenge the original judgment in that case under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b). In this opinion from last year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the District Court’s rejection of Ms. McCorvey’s Rule 60(b) motion on procedural grounds and dismissed the case, although Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones‘ concurring opinion did address some of the substantive issues pertaining to the underlying case.
Now, as noted in this AP article, Ms. McCorvey has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the lower courts and direct the District Court to grant her Rule 60(b) motion. Here is a link to the cert petition, courtesy of the excellent SCOTUSblog.
Due to the procedural nature of the challenge to Roe v. Wade, my sense is that the cert petition does not have much of a chance of success at the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, stay tuned. Stranger things have happened.