Which would be a mistake. If we’re going to all this trouble it should be a much broader medical privacy amendment.
Any amendment should explicitly state that having an abortion is a right. It may also say other things such as you suggest, but you don’t want to give the courts room to weasel around the wording by not making it explicit. Also perhaps something explicit to make the disposal of unused embryos fertilized in vitro not a crime.
In addition to the cases I already cited, see as a counter example New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992).
Regardless of the U.S. Code, the Constitution’s grant of original jurisdiction is self-executing. That was part of the first significant decision the Supreme Court made, Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. 419 (1793), and it lead to the Eleventh Amendment because as originally written, and not within the power of Congress to fix by law, the Supreme Court had original jurisdiction over cases brought by a citizen of one State against another State.
~Max
Right, and now they don’t. States retain sovereign immunity against lawsuits by citizens of any state (including their own). Meaning the U.S. Supreme Court can no longer hear these cases as a trial court.
So the Supreme Court would only hear an abortion case on appeal. But Congress has the power to strip the Supreme Court of that jurisdiction.
Article 3 of the constitution says, in part
So, if Congress can pass a law providing a national right to abortion, they can also include in that law that “The U.S. Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction to review this law.”
If so, it leads to a patchwork, where challenges to the law are brought in the federal courts or state courts, with no way to reach a final decision.
If the Supreme Court of Alabama were to hold the federal statute to be unconstitutional, that would be the final ruling in Alabama. (Using Alabama as an example, in light of their IVF ruling.)
Different federal circuits might reach different rulings, with no way to appeal.
In that chain of posts, “these cases” were cases where a State initiated the action (“those in which a State shall be a Party”) against the United States or an officer thereof. And the Supreme Court did in fact hear the cases under its original jurisdiction.
~Max