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[[Image:OWH.jpg|right|thumb|Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]]'''Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.''' (1841-1935) served on the United States [[Supreme Court]] for over 30 years and is an icon in American law schools. He is known for his elegant writing style and for dissenting from key decisions decades before the majority moved to his side of those issues.

[[Image:OWH.jpg|right|thumb|Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]]'''Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.''' (1841-1935) served on the United States [[Supreme Court]] for over 30 years and is an icon in American law schools. He is known for his elegant writing style and for dissenting from key decisions decades before the majority moved to his side of those issues.

==Family==

==Family and Life==

===Family===

Holmes' grandfather was Abiel Holmes, a [http://www.pilgrim-platform.org/conghistory.htm Congregationalist] minister of [[Puritan]] stock. Abiel's son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., abandoned his father's Congregationalism for [[Unitarianism]],<ref>“[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9406E3D7103AEF34BC4051DFB3668382649FDE Speech of Oliver Wendell Holmes at the Unitarian Convention in Boston]”, ''The New York Times'', May 28, 1859</ref> and was accused by [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/grant/peopleevents/p_adams.html Henry Adams], grandson of President [[John Quincy Adams]], of preaching “wild [[atheism]].”<ref>Jacob Clavner Levenson, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=VAkJAQAAIAAJ The Letters of Henry Adams: 1868-1885]'', (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988) ISBN 0674526856, pp. 274-275</ref>

Holmes' grandfather was Abiel Holmes, a [http://www.pilgrim-platform.org/conghistory.htm Congregationalist] minister of [[Puritan]] stock. Abiel's son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., abandoned his father's Congregationalism for [[Unitarianism]],<ref>“[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9406E3D7103AEF34BC4051DFB3668382649FDE Speech of Oliver Wendell Holmes at the Unitarian Convention in Boston]”, ''The New York Times'', May 28, 1859</ref> and was accused by [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/grant/peopleevents/p_adams.html Henry Adams], grandson of President [[John Quincy Adams]], of preaching “wild [[atheism]].”<ref>Jacob Clavner Levenson, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=VAkJAQAAIAAJ The Letters of Henry Adams: 1868-1885]'', (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988) ISBN 0674526856, pp. 274-275</ref>

==Civil War==

===Civil War===

"[D]eeply moved by the [[Abolition]] cause,"<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=sGDdFZ-vIi8C Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self]'' (Oxford University Press, 1995) ISBN 0195101286, p. 31</ref> Holmes left [[Harvard University]] to volunteer for the Union Army in the [[Civil War]], which he called “the [[Christian]] [[Crusade]] of the 19th century.”<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=sGDdFZ-vIi8C Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self]'' (Oxford University Press, 1995) ISBN 0195101286, p. 70</ref> Holmes was strongly affected by his experiences in the war. “[I]t's odd how indifferent one gets to the sight of death&mdash;perhaps, because one gets aristocratic and don't value much a common life,” he wrote. “Then they are apt to be so dirty it seems natural.”<ref>Holmes to his mother, December 12, 1862, reprinted in Mark De Wolfe Howe, ed. ''[http://ia331333.us.archive.org/3/items/touchedwithfirec012619mbp/touchedwithfirec012619mbp.pd Touched with Fire: Civil War Letters and Diary of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1861-1864]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1947), p. 71 p. 78 (PDF p. 100)</ref>

"[D]eeply moved by the [[Abolition]] cause,"<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=sGDdFZ-vIi8C Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self]'' (Oxford University Press, 1995) ISBN 0195101286, p. 31</ref> Holmes left [[Harvard University]] to volunteer for the Union Army in the [[Civil War]], which he called “the [[Christian]] [[Crusade]] of the 19th century.”<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=sGDdFZ-vIi8C Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self]'' (Oxford University Press, 1995) ISBN 0195101286, p. 70</ref> Holmes was strongly affected by his experiences in the war. “[I]t's odd how indifferent one gets to the sight of death&mdash;perhaps, because one gets aristocratic and don't value much a common life,” he wrote. “Then they are apt to be so dirty it seems natural.”<ref>Holmes to his mother, December 12, 1862, reprinted in Mark De Wolfe Howe, ed. ''[http://ia331333.us.archive.org/3/items/touchedwithfirec012619mbp/touchedwithfirec012619mbp.pd Touched with Fire: Civil War Letters and Diary of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1861-1864]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1947), p. 71 p. 78 (PDF p. 100)</ref>

After editing the ''American Law Review'' early in his career, Holmes wrote ''The Common-Law'' in 1881. The following year he became a professor of law at Harvard, and two decades later he was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. In 1902 President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] appointed him to the [[United States Supreme Court]], where he served until the age of 90, when his colleagues suggested his resignation. He died a few years later. As a Supreme Court Justice, among his law clerks were the brothers [[Alger Hiss|Alger]] and [[Donald Hiss]].

After editing the ''American Law Review'' early in his career, Holmes wrote ''The Common-Law'' in 1881. The following year he became a professor of law at Harvard, and two decades later he was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. In 1902 President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] appointed him to the [[United States Supreme Court]], where he served until the age of 90, when his colleagues suggested his resignation. He died a few years later. As a Supreme Court Justice, among his law clerks were the brothers [[Alger Hiss|Alger]] and [[Donald Hiss]].

==Atheism==

===Atheism===

Originally a devout [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transcendentalism/ Emersonian],<ref>Deirdre N. McCloskey, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=-A296D5B2FoC The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce]'' (University of Chicago Press, 2006) ISBN 0226556638, p. 193</ref> Holmes' experience of war transformed him from mild Unitarianism into skepticism, and ultimately Darwinian atheism.<ref>J. David Hoeveler, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=CKssAAAAYAAJ The Evolutionists: American Thinkers Confront Charles Darwin, 1860-1920]'' (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007) ISBN 074251174X, p. 194</ref> He was wounded, later writing:

Originally a devout [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transcendentalism/ Emersonian],<ref>Deirdre N. McCloskey, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=-A296D5B2FoC The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce]'' (University of Chicago Press, 2006) ISBN 0226556638, p. 193</ref> Holmes' experience of war transformed him from mild Unitarianism into skepticism, and ultimately Darwinian atheism.<ref>J. David Hoeveler, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=CKssAAAAYAAJ The Evolutionists: American Thinkers Confront Charles Darwin, 1860-1920]'' (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007) ISBN 074251174X, p. 194</ref> He was wounded, later writing:

{{cquote|when I thought I was dying the reflection that the majority vote of the civilized world declared that with my opinions I was en route for Hell came up with painful distinctness.... then I thought I couldn't be guilty of a deathbed recantation.... Besides, thought I, can I recant if I want to, has the approach of death changed my beliefs much? & to this I answered&mdash;No.... and so with a “God forgive me if I'm wrong” I slept....<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=sGDdFZ-vIi8C Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self]'' (Oxford University Press, 1995) ISBN 0195101286, pp. 73-74</ref>}}

{{cquote|when I thought I was dying the reflection that the majority vote of the civilized world declared that with my opinions I was en route for Hell came up with painful distinctness.... then I thought I couldn't be guilty of a deathbed recantation.... Besides, thought I, can I recant if I want to, has the approach of death changed my beliefs much? & to this I answered&mdash;No.... and so with a “God forgive me if I'm wrong” I slept....<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=sGDdFZ-vIi8C Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self]'' (Oxford University Press, 1995) ISBN 0195101286, pp. 73-74</ref>}}

==Legal Realism==

===Legal Realism and Moral Nihilism===

As the father of “legal realism,” Holmes' great mission was to divorce law from all concepts of morality and ethics. He wrote, “I often doubt whether it would not be a gain if every word of moral significance could be banished from the law altogether.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., “The Path of the Law,” ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=JvEoAAAAYAAJ Harvard Law Review'', Vol. X], No. 8 (March 25, 1897), p. 464</ref> He was a “moral [[nihilism|nihilist]]”;<ref>David Luban, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=1LSihhEt83oC Legal Modernism: Law, Meaning, and Violence]'' (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1997) ISBN 0472084399, p. 29</ref> in addition, his ideas included [[Skepticism]], [[Materialism]], [[Utilitarianism]], [[Pragmatism]], and “[[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzschean]] vitalism and 'will to power.'”<ref>Richard A. Posner, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=HamEkfqdMcEC The Essential Holmes: Selections from the Letters, Speeches, Judicial Opinions, and Other Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]'' (University of Chicago Press, 1997) ISBN 0226675548, pp. xvi, xix-xx</ref>

As the father of “legal realism,” Holmes' great mission was to divorce law from all concepts of morality and ethics. He wrote, “I often doubt whether it would not be a gain if every word of moral significance could be banished from the law altogether.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., “The Path of the Law,” ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=JvEoAAAAYAAJ Harvard Law Review'', Vol. X], No. 8 (March 25, 1897), p. 464</ref> He was a “moral [[nihilism|nihilist]]”;<ref>David Luban, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=1LSihhEt83oC Legal Modernism: Law, Meaning, and Violence]'' (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1997) ISBN 0472084399, p. 29</ref> in addition, his ideas included [[Skepticism]], [[Materialism]], [[Utilitarianism]], [[Pragmatism]], and “[[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzschean]] vitalism and 'will to power.'”<ref>Richard A. Posner, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=HamEkfqdMcEC The Essential Holmes: Selections from the Letters, Speeches, Judicial Opinions, and Other Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]'' (University of Chicago Press, 1997) ISBN 0226675548, pp. xvi, xix-xx</ref>

==Might Makes Right==

===Might Makes Right===

Holmes Sr. once compared himself to Socrates,<ref>Holmes' father declared that he had been “accused of the crime for which Socrates suffered; that of being a poisoner of public opinion.” (“[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9406E3D7103AEF34BC4051DFB3668382649FDE Speech of Oliver Wendell Holmes at the Unitarian Convention in Boston]”, ''The New York Times'', May 28, 1859)</ref> but Holmes Jr. took the part of Thrasymachus<ref>”I proclaim that justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger.” Plato (A.D. Lindsay, tr.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=D868ZOuNQ5QC The Republic]'' (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1954) ISBN 1603035621, p. 52</ref>&mdash;that “might makes right”&mdash;when he wrote that “force... is the ''ultima ratio''.”<ref>Holmes to Frederick Pollock, February 1, 1920, in Richard A. Posner, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=HamEkfqdMcEC The Essential Holmes: Selections from the Letters, Speeches, Judicial Opinions, and Other Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 103</ref> The “proximate test of a good government,” he wrote, is that “the dominant power has its way.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Montequieu” (1901), in ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=66UPxXl2KU8C Collected Legal Papers]'' (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1920),  p. 258</ref> A “law should be called good if it reflects the will of the dominant forces of the community,” he wrote to [[Felix Frankfurter]], “even if it will take us to hell.”<ref>Holmes to Frankfurter, March 24, 1914, reprinted in Robert M. Mennel and Christine L. Compston, eds., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nJAXIYZKyFUC Holmes and Frankfurter: Their Correspondence, 1912-1934]'' (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1996) ISBN 0874517583, p. 19</ref>

Holmes Sr. once compared himself to Socrates,<ref>Holmes' father declared that he had been “accused of the crime for which Socrates suffered; that of being a poisoner of public opinion.” (“[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9406E3D7103AEF34BC4051DFB3668382649FDE Speech of Oliver Wendell Holmes at the Unitarian Convention in Boston]”, ''The New York Times'', May 28, 1859)</ref> but Holmes Jr. took the part of Thrasymachus<ref>”I proclaim that justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger.” Plato (A.D. Lindsay, tr.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=D868ZOuNQ5QC The Republic]'' (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1954) ISBN 1603035621, p. 52</ref>&mdash;that “might makes right”&mdash;when he wrote that “force... is the ''ultima ratio''.”<ref>Holmes to Frederick Pollock, February 1, 1920, in Richard A. Posner, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=HamEkfqdMcEC The Essential Holmes: Selections from the Letters, Speeches, Judicial Opinions, and Other Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 103</ref> The “proximate test of a good government,” he wrote, is that “the dominant power has its way.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Montequieu” (1901), in ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=66UPxXl2KU8C Collected Legal Papers]'' (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1920),  p. 258</ref> A “law should be called good if it reflects the will of the dominant forces of the community,” he wrote to [[Felix Frankfurter]], “even if it will take us to hell.”<ref>Holmes to Frankfurter, March 24, 1914, reprinted in Robert M. Mennel and Christine L. Compston, eds., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nJAXIYZKyFUC Holmes and Frankfurter: Their Correspondence, 1912-1934]'' (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1996) ISBN 0874517583, p. 19</ref>

Holmes' [[atheism]] and [[Darwinism]] led him to deny [[Christian]] values such as respect for [http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html human life]. “I see no reason for attributing to man a significance different in kind from that which belongs to a baboon or a grain of sand,” he wrote.<ref>Holmes to Frederick Pollock, August 30, 1929, in Richard A. Posner, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=HamEkfqdMcEC The Essential Holmes: Selections from the Letters, Speeches, Judicial Opinions, and Other Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 108</ref> The “sacredness of human life,” according to Holmes, “is purely a municipal ideal of no validity outside the jurisdiction.”<ref>Jesse H. Choper, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=yviGAAAAIAAJ The Supreme Court and Its Justices]'' (American Bar Association, 1987) ISBN 0897072901, p. 232</ref> “All 'isms seem to me silly,” he wrote Laski, “but this hyperaethereal respect for human life seems perhaps the silliest of all.”<ref>Holmes to Laski, April 13, 1929, reprinted in Mark De Wolfe Howe, ed., ''[http://ia331339.us.archive.org/1/items/holmeslaskilette017767mbp/holmeslaskilette017767mbp.pdf Holmes-Laski Letters: The Correspondence of Mr. Justice Holmes and Harold J. Laski, 1916-1935]'', Volume 2 (Harvard University Press, 1953), p. 1146 (PDF p. 346)</ref> He asked another correspondent, “Doesn't this squashy sentimentality... about human life make you puke?”<ref>Sheldon M. Novick, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=JhPYAAAAMAAJ Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes]'' (Dell Publishing, 1990) ISBN 0440503256, p. 469</ref> His opinion of his fellow man was not charitable. “I loathe the thick-fingered clowns we call the people,” he wrote, calling them “vulgar, selfish, and base.”<ref>Mark De Wolfe Howe, ed. ''[http://ia331333.us.archive.org/3/items/touchedwithfirec012619mbp/touchedwithfirec012619mbp.pdf Touched with Fire: Civil War Letters and Diary of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1861-1864]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1947), p. 71 (PDF p. 93)</ref>

Holmes' [[atheism]] and [[Darwinism]] led him to deny [[Christian]] values such as respect for [http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html human life]. “I see no reason for attributing to man a significance different in kind from that which belongs to a baboon or a grain of sand,” he wrote.<ref>Holmes to Frederick Pollock, August 30, 1929, in Richard A. Posner, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=HamEkfqdMcEC The Essential Holmes: Selections from the Letters, Speeches, Judicial Opinions, and Other Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 108</ref> The “sacredness of human life,” according to Holmes, “is purely a municipal ideal of no validity outside the jurisdiction.”<ref>Jesse H. Choper, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=yviGAAAAIAAJ The Supreme Court and Its Justices]'' (American Bar Association, 1987) ISBN 0897072901, p. 232</ref> “All 'isms seem to me silly,” he wrote Laski, “but this hyperaethereal respect for human life seems perhaps the silliest of all.”<ref>Holmes to Laski, April 13, 1929, reprinted in Mark De Wolfe Howe, ed., ''[http://ia331339.us.archive.org/1/items/holmeslaskilette017767mbp/holmeslaskilette017767mbp.pdf Holmes-Laski Letters: The Correspondence of Mr. Justice Holmes and Harold J. Laski, 1916-1935]'', Volume 2 (Harvard University Press, 1953), p. 1146 (PDF p. 346)</ref> He asked another correspondent, “Doesn't this squashy sentimentality... about human life make you puke?”<ref>Sheldon M. Novick, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=JhPYAAAAMAAJ Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes]'' (Dell Publishing, 1990) ISBN 0440503256, p. 469</ref> His opinion of his fellow man was not charitable. “I loathe the thick-fingered clowns we call the people,” he wrote, calling them “vulgar, selfish, and base.”<ref>Mark De Wolfe Howe, ed. ''[http://ia331333.us.archive.org/3/items/touchedwithfirec012619mbp/touchedwithfirec012619mbp.pdf Touched with Fire: Civil War Letters and Diary of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1861-1864]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1947), p. 71 (PDF p. 93)</ref>

==Social Darwinism and Eugenics==

===Social Darwinism and Eugenics===

Holmes was a believer not just in [[Darwinism]], but in [[Social Darwinism]]<ref>J.W. Burrow, “Holmes in His Social Milieu,” in Robert Watson Gordon, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=DrrHKWpK7coC The Legacy of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr]'' (Stanford University Press, 1992) ISBN 0804719896, pp. 18-29</ref> and [[eugenics]]. In 1915, he wrote that “wholesale social regeneration” could be effected “only by taking in hand life and trying to build a race.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., “Ideals and Doubts,” 10 ''Illinois Law Review'' 1 (1915), reprinted in ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=1OMLO4-TLmQC Collected Legal Papers]'' (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1920), p. 306</ref> What he meant, he explained six years later to  Frankfurter, was not merely “restricting propagation by the undesirables,” but “putting to death infants that didn't pass the examination, etc. etc.”<ref>Holmes to Frankfurter, September 3, 1921, postscript, in Robert M. Mennel and Christine L. Compston, eds., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nJAXIYZKyFUC Holmes and Frankfurter: Their Correspondence, 1912-1934]'' (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1996) ISBN 0874517583, p. 125</ref> His denial of human rights thus extinguished even to the right to life.

Holmes was a believer not just in [[Darwinism]], but in [[Social Darwinism]]<ref>J.W. Burrow, “Holmes in His Social Milieu,” in Robert Watson Gordon, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=DrrHKWpK7coC The Legacy of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr]'' (Stanford University Press, 1992) ISBN 0804719896, pp. 18-29</ref> and [[eugenics]]. In 1915, he wrote that “wholesale social regeneration” could be effected “only by taking in hand life and trying to build a race.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., “Ideals and Doubts,” 10 ''Illinois Law Review'' 1 (1915), reprinted in ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=1OMLO4-TLmQC Collected Legal Papers]'' (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1920), p. 306</ref> What he meant, he explained six years later to  Frankfurter, was not merely “restricting propagation by the undesirables,” but “putting to death infants that didn't pass the examination, etc. etc.”<ref>Holmes to Frankfurter, September 3, 1921, postscript, in Robert M. Mennel and Christine L. Compston, eds., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nJAXIYZKyFUC Holmes and Frankfurter: Their Correspondence, 1912-1934]'' (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1996) ISBN 0874517583, p. 125</ref> His denial of human rights thus extinguished even to the right to life.

As early as 1895, Holmes said, “I can imagine a future in which science... shall take control of life, and condemn at once with instant execution what now is left for nature to destroy.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=2Sj_EQxlrqMC An Address]'' (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1895), p. 5</ref> Two years later, he wrote that in order to “see socialism successful,” society must “substitute artificial selection for natural by putting to death the inadequate.”<ref>Holmes to Claire Fitzpatrick, Lady Castletown, August 19, 1897, quoted in Sheldon M. Novick, “Justice Holmes' Philosophy,” 70 ''Washington University Law Quarterly'' (1992), pp. 703, 729</ref> He wrote of his “contempt” for “socialisms not prepared... to kill everyone below standard,” adding, “I shall think socialism begins to be entitled to serious treatment when and not before it takes life in hand and prevents continuance of the unfit.” (In 1941, Father Frances E. Lucey, regent of Georgetown University Law School, remarked that "if recent reports are true" National Socialist Germany appeared to satisfy this standard.)<ref>Albert W. Alschuler, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=QSBj8LgEi-kC Law Without Values: The Life, Work, and Legacy of Justice Holmes]'' (University of Chicago Press, 2002) ISBN 0226015211, pp. 27-28</ref> “I can understand saying,” wrote Holmes, “whatever the cost, so far as may be, we will keep certain strains out of our blood.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., “Law and Social Reform,” in Max Lerner, ed., ''[http://ia311220.us.archive.org/0/items/mindandfaithofju024518mbp/mindandfaithofju024518mbp.pdf The Mind and Faith of Justice Holmes]'' (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1943), p. 401 (PDF p. 446)</ref> Holmes looked forward to a future civilization “perhaps with smaller numbers, but perhaps also bred to greatness and splendor by science.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., “The Law and the Court,” ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=66UPxXl2KU8C Collected Legal Papers],” p. 296</ref>

As early as 1895, Holmes said, “I can imagine a future in which science... shall take control of life, and condemn at once with instant execution what now is left for nature to destroy.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=2Sj_EQxlrqMC An Address]'' (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1895), p. 5</ref> Two years later, he wrote that in order to “see socialism successful,” society must “substitute artificial selection for natural by putting to death the inadequate.”<ref>Holmes to Claire Fitzpatrick, Lady Castletown, August 19, 1897, quoted in Sheldon M. Novick, “Justice Holmes' Philosophy,” 70 ''Washington University Law Quarterly'' (1992), pp. 703, 729</ref> He wrote of his “contempt” for “socialisms not prepared... to kill everyone below standard,” adding, “I shall think socialism begins to be entitled to serious treatment when and not before it takes life in hand and prevents continuance of the unfit.” (In 1941, Father Frances E. Lucey, regent of Georgetown University Law School, remarked that "if recent reports are true" National Socialist Germany appeared to satisfy this standard.)<ref>Albert W. Alschuler, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=QSBj8LgEi-kC Law Without Values: The Life, Work, and Legacy of Justice Holmes]'' (University of Chicago Press, 2002) ISBN 0226015211, pp. 27-28</ref> “I can understand saying,” wrote Holmes, “whatever the cost, so far as may be, we will keep certain strains out of our blood.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., “Law and Social Reform,” in Max Lerner, ed., ''[http://ia311220.us.archive.org/0/items/mindandfaithofju024518mbp/mindandfaithofju024518mbp.pdf The Mind and Faith of Justice Holmes]'' (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1943), p. 401 (PDF p. 446)</ref> Holmes looked forward to a future civilization “perhaps with smaller numbers, but perhaps also bred to greatness and splendor by science.”<ref>Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., “The Law and the Court,” ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=66UPxXl2KU8C Collected Legal Papers],” p. 296</ref>

==''Buck v. Bell''==

===''Buck v. Bell''===

As a Supreme Court Justice, Holmes read his belief in eugenics into the law, writing the decision in ''Buck v. Bell'' (1927) upholding the forced sterilization of a young woman, Carrie Buck, on the grounds that she had a low IQ: "Three generations of imbeciles are enough," wrote Holmes, referring to Buck, her mother, and her six-month-old baby.<ref>[http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=274&invol=200 ''Buck v. Bell'', 274 U.S. 200] (1927)</ref> The Nazis, who sterilized more than 400,000 people, used ''Buck v. Bell'' in their propaganda.<ref>Stephen Murdoch, [http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/59714.html Review of Paul Lombardo’s ''Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)], History News Network (George Mason University, January 13, 2009</ref> When that practice was condemned at the Nuremberg trials, counsel for the accused Nazis likewise cited Holmes' opinion in their clients' defense.<ref>William E. Leuchtenburg, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=KguJFHdmP6MC The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt]'' (Oxford University Press, 1996) ISBN 0195111311, p. 17</ref>

As a Supreme Court Justice, Holmes read his belief in eugenics into the law, writing the decision in ''Buck v. Bell'' (1927) upholding the forced sterilization of a young woman, Carrie Buck, on the grounds that she had a low IQ: "Three generations of imbeciles are enough," wrote Holmes, referring to Buck, her mother, and her six-month-old baby.<ref>[http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=274&invol=200 ''Buck v. Bell'', 274 U.S. 200] (1927)</ref> The Nazis, who sterilized more than 400,000 people, used ''Buck v. Bell'' in their propaganda.<ref>Stephen Murdoch, [http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/59714.html Review of Paul Lombardo’s ''Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)], History News Network (George Mason University, January 13, 2009</ref> When that practice was condemned at the Nuremberg trials, counsel for the accused Nazis likewise cited Holmes' opinion in their clients' defense.<ref>William E. Leuchtenburg, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=KguJFHdmP6MC The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt]'' (Oxford University Press, 1996) ISBN 0195111311, p. 17</ref>