Essay:25 Worst Court Decisions

The vast majority of the "25 Worst Court Decisions" involved some deception, impropriety or inadequate scholarship, as discussed in the footnotes. (All decisions are by the U.S. Supreme Court except where noted; rulings overturned by the court system are not included.)

Roe v. Wade (and Doe v. Bolton) (1973) (legalized abortion)^[1]
Lawrence v. Texas (2003) (struck down sodomy laws, allowing immoral conduct)^[2]
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) (forced racial integration and led to widespread inner city decay)^[3]
Goodridge v. Department of Public Health (Mass. Sup. Ct. 2003) (mandated same-sex marriage)^[4]
Engel v. Vitale (1962) (banned prayer in public school)^[5]
Buck v. Bell (1927) (approved of forced sterilization of low-IQ women)^[6]
Plyler v. Doe (1982) (mandated that all illegal immigrants be given free education in public schools)
Stenberg v. Carhart (2000) (legalized partial-birth abortion)^[7]
Roper v. Simmons (2005) (cited foreign law to prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by 17-year-olds)
Kelo v. City of New London (2005) (expanded eminent domain)
Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) (used to justify eliminating religion from public life)^[8]
Romer v. Evans (2002)
Wickard v. Filburn (1942) (granted Congress power to prohibit growing wheat on your own land) and turned the Commerce Clause on its head.^[9]
Stone v. Graham (1980) (banned the Ten Commandments from display in public school)^[10]
Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) (prohibited limitations on evolution indoctrination in public schools)^[11]
Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) (banned scientific evidence of creation from public schools)
Baker v. Carr (1962) (one man one vote)
Cooper v. Aaron (1958) (judicial supremacy)
Missouri v. Jenkins (1985) (upheld 1990) (ordered tax increase for school)
Montoy v. Kansas (Kan. Sup. Ct. 2005) (ordered tax increase for school)
Mapp v. Ohio (1961) (required criminal courts to exclude evidence if seized improperly)
United States v. Callender (upheld the Sedition Act)
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) (created a "right to privacy" not present in the Constitution which has been used to justify abortion and sodomy)
Block v. Hirsh (1921) (declared rent control to be constitutional despite deprivation of rights of property owners)
U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton (1995)

References

↑ Neither woman in these cases actually wanted an abortion, and both have since attempted unsuccessfully to have these decisions overturned.
↑ This case was a set-up whereby a false claim of a felony was reported to the police in order to compel an arrest in someone's apartment.
↑ White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism by Kevin M. Kruse. ISBN 9780691133867
↑ The lead plaintiffs separated about two years after getting married.[1]
↑ The Court cited no precedential holding in its entire opinion.
↑ The case was based on a fraudulent claim that the woman was mentally retarded.
↑ The Court invalidated the partial-birth abortion laws even though they had never been applied, contrary to its ruling in United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 745 (1987), that a facial challenge to a statute can succeed only if there are no circumstances in which the statute may be applied constitutionally. The Court did not even cite or distinguish the Salerno precedent.
↑ Chief Justice Warren Burger, who later lamented hostility to religion, wrote the Lemon decision for the Court but admitted privately in a dinner conversation with Andrew Schlafly in late 1991 that Burger never intended for it to be applied in the broad manner that it was.
↑ http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0317_0111_ZS.html
↑ The Court issued a 5-4 unsigned (per curiam) decision without hearing argument on the merits of the case.
↑ Justice Abe Fortas wrote this opinion only weeks after he was rejected by the Senate for improprieties in his nomination to become Chief Justice,[2] and as a new scandal was lurking that led to Chief Justice Earl Warren telling him to resign. This opinion was released a mere 27 days after oral argument, which is much quicker than usual.

[1] Neither woman in these cases actually wanted an abortion, and both have since attempted unsuccessfully to have these decisions overturned.

[2] This case was a set-up whereby a false claim of a felony was reported to the police in order to compel an arrest in someone's apartment.

[3] White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism by Kevin M. Kruse. ISBN 9780691133867

[4] The lead plaintiffs separated about two years after getting married.[1]

[5] The Court cited no precedential holding in its entire opinion.

[6] The case was based on a fraudulent claim that the woman was mentally retarded.

[7] The Court invalidated the partial-birth abortion laws even though they had never been applied, contrary to its ruling in United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 745 (1987), that a facial challenge to a statute can succeed only if there are no circumstances in which the statute may be applied constitutionally. The Court did not even cite or distinguish the Salerno precedent.

[8] Chief Justice Warren Burger, who later lamented hostility to religion, wrote the Lemon decision for the Court but admitted privately in a dinner conversation with Andrew Schlafly in late 1991 that Burger never intended for it to be applied in the broad manner that it was.

[9] ttp://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0317_0111_ZS.html

[10] The Court issued a 5-4 unsigned (per curiam) decision without hearing argument on the merits of the case.

[11] Justice Abe Fortas wrote this opinion only weeks after he was rejected by the Senate for improprieties in his nomination to become Chief Justice,[2] and as a new scandal was lurking that led to Chief Justice Earl Warren telling him to resign. This opinion was released a mere 27 days after oral argument, which is much quicker than usual.

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Essay:25 Worst Court Decisions

References

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