Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Casey Taylor ·
January 24, 2011 at 10:04pm
What do y'all think (yes, I have the South in my mouth) are the worst three decisions handed down by the Blackrobes, and why? I'll start:
1.) Plessy v. Ferguson gave us 'separate but equal', and everything that entailed;
2.) Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide and imposed it on the States with no thought to defining human life and rights, and when those begin;
3.) Kelo v. City of New London, CT, took the concept of eminent domain and distorted it beyond all reason and recognition, in the process reversing the roles of government and governed.
What do you think?
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Comments:
Aug '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Roe, no contest- even the Plaintiff ( real name Norma McCorvey) has come out against it subsequently.
Jul '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Wickard v. Filburn: http://www.lawnix.com/cases/wickard-filburn.html
Far and away the worst decision.
Jun '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
All of my three are tied for worst, with Wickard v. Filburn right barely trailing. I'm still going back and forth on that one.
Edited on January 23, 2011 at 6:28amNov '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
The most damaging is definitely Kelo; without property rights you ain't got nothing at all....
Dec '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
um... Roe v. Wade. There's 50 million who might say that life is more important than property, that is, if they could.
Edited on January 23, 2011 at 9:42amMay '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Kenneth: Wickard v. Filburn: http://www.lawnix.com/cases/wickard-filburn.html
Far and away the worst decision. · Jan 22 at 9:04pm
Bingo. This decision borders on criminal insanity.
Jul '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Roe v. Wade did more than just make abortion legal.
It converted Property Rights to Privacy Rights. (This is what opened the door to ESA making a portion of you home unlivable because an Eagle built its nest in a tree on the north side of you home etc.) The chain of consequence is longer than that, but it all starts with that one conversion.
It also began the Erosion that culminated with Kelo.
Roe v. Wade is bad law and bad constitution.
Edited on January 23, 2011 at 9:33amNov '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Foxman
um... Roe v. Wade. There's 50 million who might say that life is more important than property, that is, if thet could. · Jan 22 at 10:30pm
um...Go back to square one... The majority of those who have abortions are poor. People with property and economic resources make more responsible choices.
Edited on January 23, 2011 at 9:45amJan '11
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Let's not forget the emanations and penumbras of Griswold v. Connecticut. The result of the case is one thing, the arguments used to justify it are another. Griswold is the milestone where American law left the text, and found itself wafting through the vapors of emanations and penumbras. Without any anchor in the text, the Court is just another political battle.
Sep '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
All those listed are horrible, but I think Dred Scott deserves a mention.
May '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Has Marbury v Madison become a net negative, given the power the men in black have come to have?
Also, it's possible legislators would be more circumspect and "constitutionally minded" if the onus of constitutional justification were more clearly theirs.
Sep '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Scott Reusser: Has Marbury v Madison become a net negative, given the power the men in black have come to have?
Also, it's possible legislators would be more circumspect and "constitutionally minded" if the onus of constitutional justification were more clearly theirs. · Jan 23 at 6:21am
Maybe we should ask John Yoo. On the final segment of the current "Uncommon Knowledge" Richard Epstein joked that Professor Yoo wanted to overturn Marbury. At least I think he was joking.
Jun '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Dang, I forgot about Dred Scott. Good catch, Craig.
Jul '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Well Casey, fortunately this horse is dead, but I'm gonna keep beating Buck v. Bell as long as I live.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_v._Bell
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
There are no doubt many candidates for worst Supreme Court decision. But I think the biggest mistake in the Court's history is Dred Scott v. Sanford, which not only was utterly mistaken as a matter of constitutional interpretation (by holding that Congress could not regulate slavery in the territories) but, in a larger political sense, helped bring on the Civil War by limiting Congress's ability to serve as a forum to settle the differences between North and South.
Jun '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Holy Smokes, Palaeologus. I'd never even heard of that! That's awful!
"It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., writing for the majority.
Jun '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Up late with John Yoo. Giggity.
Aug '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Casey -
Good post. And a reminder that even the smartest, most well-meaning among us often make mistakes. Sometime huuuuuge mistakes.
So - do all these bad decisions considered together make a compelling case against stare decisis? (Hope I spelled that right.) Do we place too much weight on the previous decisions of the court? This is an honest question - not a rhetorical one - from a guy whose legal knowledge mostly comes from "Law and Order."
Sep '10
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
Songwriter: Casey -
So - do all these bad decisions considered together make a compelling case against stare decisis? (Hope I spelled that right.) Do we place too much weight on the previous decisions of the court? This is an honest question - not a rhetorical one - from a guy whose legal knowledge mostly comes from "Law and Order." · Jan 24 at 7:28am
No, I don't think so. Remember that Dred Scott and Plessy were overturned or superseded by constitutional amendment-- so there's hope yet for Boumediene, and Kelo and Roe, et. al. And I don't see how you can have a well ordered legal system without vertical Stare Decisis, meaning that inferior courts are bound by decisions of courts above them. Horizontal stare decisis, whether, for example, the second circuit should be bound by decisions of the ninth circuit, is a different matter. My understanding is that they are not.
Re: Worst Three SCOTUS decisions.
My first reaction was John’s. Who could leave Dred Scott off the list? It meets all the tests. Its language is by far the most offensive of any in any Supreme Court opinion. The consequences were great. In the short term it invalidated the Compromise of 1850. In the medium run, it led to the Civil War. In the long run, it is the one decision that constitutes the greatest blot in our judicial history. Plessy is a horrific decision on many levels, but it is a distant second to Dred Scott. Indeed for many years it was regarded as good law, almost self-evidently so. In part, it was because the case relied on a Massachusetts decision by Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw in Roberts v. City of Boston, which took the same line for rather different reasons.