Issues4Life

Pictured above are the Nuremberg Trial defendants in the dock. The main target of the prosecution was Hermann Göring (at the left edge on the first row of benches). Hermann Göring was a German politician, military leader, and leading member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Göring was considered to be the most important surviving official in the Third Reich after Hitler's death. Held between November 20th, 1945 and October 1st, 1946, the Tribunal was given the task of trying twenty-three (23) of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany. One of the defendants, Martin Bormann, was tried in absentia. Another defendant, Robert Ley, committed suicide within a week of the trial's commencement. Note that Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels were not included, as each of them had committed suicide several months before the indictments were signed. As such, a second set of trials of lesser war criminals was conducted under Control Council Law No. 10 at the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals. Among these tribunals included the Doctors' Trial and the Judges' Trial.

Judgment at Nuremberg is a 1961 American drama film dealing with non-combatant war crimes against a civilian population (i.e., crimes committed in violation of the Law of Nations or the Laws of War), the Holocaust, and with the post-World War II geo-political complexities of the Nuremberg Trials themselves. The picture was written by Abby Mann and directed by Stanley Kramer, and stars Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift. The movie examines Nuremberg, Germany in 1948 where the American military is holding a post-WWII tribunal on the activities of individuals within the Nazi Party leading up to and during the war. Dan Haywood is the lead judge in a three-man judiciary in one of those trials, where four men, who were involved in judicial matters, are the defendants. The general issues surrounding these four is whether they are guilty of international crimes or were just carrying out the laws of their national government, especially as they did not run or operate concentration camps for example, or purportedly know about what was happening to anyone they sentenced to life at those concentration camps. In the end, the issue at the heart of the case becomes clear to Judge Haywood. Each defendant had chosen allegiance to their country over allegiance to what they knew was right and wrong. As such the tribunal finds the defendants guilty and Judge Haywood sentences each defendant to life imprisonment, noting that their actions were illegal under both International law and German law, and further notes that they were men of sufficient intellect, prominence and credibility in Germany that their refusal to help transform the German court system into an institution that, systematically, denied justice to enemies of the Third Reich would have made a difference. The movie ends with Judge Haywood visiting defendant Ernst Janning in his prison cell. Here is the end of that discussion: "Ernst Janning: The reason I asked you to come … Those people … those millions of people … I never knew it would come to that. You must believe it. Judge Haywood: Herr Janning … it came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent." ^Top

On Monday, January 22nd, 1973 the United States Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 and simultaneously with a companion case, Doe v. Bolton regarding the issue of abortion. The Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy "somewhere" under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that this right must be balanced against the state's two (2) legitimate interests in regulating abortions and protecting women's health and ultimately the protection the potentiality of human life. Importantly, the United States Supreme Court never declared abortion itself to be a constitutional right. Rather, the Supreme Court said: "We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins … the judiciary at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer." Then, in the very text of the Roe v. Wade decision, the High Court made a key admission:

"The appellee and certain amici argue that the fetus is a "person" within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. In support of this, they outline at length and in detail the well-known facts of fetal development. If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, [410 U.S. 113, 157] for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment."¹

In my opinion, the United States Supreme Court needed to "resolve the difficult question of when life begins … " before rendering judgment on the death of the only product of a human male and a human female, that is a human being. Below are clips from the 1961 movie Judgment at Nuremburg. In light of the fact that not one (1) of the seven (7) Supreme Court justices that made up the majority for 1973 Roe v. Wade decision are alive today, you can be the judge. ^Top

Reference: 1. United States Supreme Court: ROE v. WADE, (1973): No. 70-18. Argued: Monday, December 13th, 1971 Decided: Monday, January 22nd, 1973" Click here.

YOUTUBE NOTICE: As of Saturday, July 4th, 2015 all the Judgment At Nuremberg clips are available on Walter's YouTube Channel. ^Top