While the president may seem to be the most influential and powerful man in the nation; in reality, he exercises limited power. According to the Constitution, there are various checks that other branches can use to curb his authority. The judiciary branch has a profound impact on legal cases and public policy if one takes into consideration the philosophy of judicial activism and the power of judicial review. The major influence of the president over the judiciary is his ability to appoint justices; however, once a particular justice is appointed, he or she is completely insulated, not required to worry about public opinion or influences from other branches.

the separation of powers between the judicial and executive branches of government. Although the president occupies the duty to appoint Supreme Court justices, his power is limited in controlling the outcome of public policy in the area of abortion, since once justices are appointed and approved, they are free to operate and evolve as they wish, entailing their ultimate supremacy in molding social policy on the legality of abortion.

After years of a liberal majority in the Supreme Court, the anti-abortion movement reached its peak during the three terms of Presidents Reagan and Bush. Reagan and Bush used Roe as a litmus test, while appointing Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, and Thomas, during this twelve year period. Meanwhile, twenty-seven years after Roe v. Wade, the nation's most significant decision regarding women's rights, freedom of reproductive choice hangs by a "frayed thread".5 This is mostly because of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, both adamant foes of abortion rights, appointed Supreme Court Justices who shared their ultra-conservative views.2

After the 1973 court case, abortion became legalized and the topic became a divisive political issue for Americans, cleaving the public into two groups, pro-life and pro-choice. In the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan, in an attempt to control the makeup of the Supreme Court to ensure its accordance with his anti-abortion philosophy, failed to actually influence and overturn the Court's decision. Despite the efforts of Reagan, as well as the following president, George Bush, Roe v. Wade still stands today in spite of the twenty-one times that the ruling has been challenged.1

President George Bush was equally as comfortable in exercising his executive pow

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