Robert Patrick Casey Sr. was an American lawyer and politician from Pennsylvania who served as the 42nd governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate for the 22nd district from 1963 to 1968 and as Auditor General of Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1977.
Casey in 1986
Casey at a press conference in Harrisburg, 1974
Casey (right) with Congressman John Murtha
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court upheld the right to have an abortion as established by the "essential holding" of Roe v. Wade (1973) and issued as its "key judgment" the restoration of the undue burden standard when evaluating state-imposed restrictions on that right. Both the essential holding of Roe and the key judgment of Casey were overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, with its landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was one of the three authors of the "undue burden" standard that she first advocated for in earlier abortion rulings.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist was the senior justice of the four that dissented against the upholding of Roe.
Justice Harry Blackmun, the original author of Roe, would have struck down all of the Pennsylvania abortion restrictions, continuing to apply strict scrutiny.
Image: Anthony Kennedy official SCOTUS portrait crop
