As always, you can find the Dobbs v. Jackson decision here.
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Sentence 1 of 2
Even though we’re beginning a new section, this paragraph flows so completely from the last paragraph of the previous section that a reader who takes a break between sections might have to reverse gears a moment to make sense of this first sentence in Part II Section A Subsection 2. This sentence reads:
“The underlying theory on which this argument rests—that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause provides substantive, as well as procedural, protection for “liberty”—has long been controversial.”
Just to make that first part make sense, I’ll fill in “this argument” with the information it indicates in the previous paragraph as I split this sentence into its two component claims:
The theory“that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause provides substantive, as well as procedural, protection for ‘liberty’” underlies the argument “that the abortion right is an aspect of the ‘liberty’ protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The theory“that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause provides substantive, as well as procedural, protection for ‘liberty’” is “controversial.”
The first claim seems reasonable, but there isn’t a quick way to confirm that, so I’ll leave that on the board for deeper exploration. The second claim also seems reasonable, and tempting to assume to be true, since almost everything about the abortion debate is controversial, but since it’s not informative in any real sense, I’ll let that one sit, too. Maybe it will become necessary to confirm these two, but I imagine we’ll have more pressing ideas to iron out before these matter all that much.
So this sentence has two claims that are (for now) undetermined:
Cynical Jason 