Essay:25 Worst Court Decisions

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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.)

  1. Roe v. Wade (and Doe v. Bolton) (1973) (legalized abortion)[1]
  2. Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) (authorized slavery & denied citizenship to blacks)[2]
  3. Goodridge v. Department of Public Health (Mass. Sup. Ct. 2003) (mandated same-sex marriage)[3]
  4. Engel v. Vitale (1962) (banned prayer in public school)[4]
  5. Buck v. Bell (1927) (approved of forced sterilization of low-IQ women)[5]
  6. Plyler v. Doe (1982) (mandated that all illegal immigrants be given free education in public schools)
  7. Stenberg v. Carhart (2000) (legalized partial-birth abortion)
  8. Roper v. Simmons (2005) (cited foreign law to prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by 17-year-olds)
  9. Kelo v. City of New London (2005) expanded eminent domain
  10. Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) (used to justify eliminating religion from public life)
  11. Romer v. Evans (2002)
  12. Lawrence v. Texas (2003) (struck down sodomy laws, allowing immoral conduct)[6]
  13. Stone v. Graham (1980) (banned the Ten Commandments from display in public school)[7]
  14. Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) (imposed evolution indoctrination in public schools)[8]
  15. Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) (banned scientific evidence of creation from public schools)
  16. Wickard v. Filburn (1942) (granted Congress power to prohibit growing wheat on your own land)
  17. Baker v. Carr (1962) (one man one vote)
  18. Cooper v. Aaron (1958) (judicial supremacy)
  19. Missouri v. Jenkins (1985) (upheld 1990) (ordered tax increase for school)
  20. Montoy v. Kansas (Kan. Sup. Ct. 2005) (ordered tax increase for school)
  21. Mapp v. Ohio (1961) (required criminal courts to exclude evidence if seized improperly)
  22. United States v. Callender (upheld the Sedition Act)
  23. Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) (created a "right to privacy" not present in the Constitution which has been used to justify abortion and sodomy)
  24. Block v. Hirsh (1921) (declared rent control to be constitutional despite deprivation of rights of property owners)
  25. U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton (1995)

References

  1. ↑ Neither woman in these cases actually wanted an abortion, and both have since attempted unsuccessfully to have these decisions overturned.
  2. ↑ The Court far exceeded the controversy before it in its ruling. President James Buchanan reportedly had sought this decision privately with the Court, and the decision was rendered two days after his inauguration.
  3. ↑ The lead plaintiffs separated about two years after getting married.[1]
  4. ↑ The Court cited no precedential holding in its entire opinion.
  5. ↑ The case was based on a fraudulent claim that the woman was mentally retarded.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ The Court issued a 5-4 unsigned (per curiam) decision without hearing argument on the merits of the case.
  8. ↑ Justice Abe Fortas wrote this opinion only weeks after he was rejected by the Senate in his nomination to become Chief Justice,[2] and only few months before a scandal erupted that led to Chief Justice Earl Warren telling him to resign.
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