Then you can thank the 14th amendment for that one. Now the 14th amendment, which I hate with a passion, is a part of the constitution. It allowed the R v. W case to be heard in front of them since the amendment has been used to whittle away states rights since its inception sometimes for the good but mostly for ill. Once one state law is found unconstitutional every other state law that is similar in major parts are also unconstitutional. Now as to Bork's words on the election. The only thing the Republicans did was to turn the dagger of "equal protection under the law" back at the Liberals for once. It gave them the opening to argue the issues that the case was decided on.