The Supreme Court’s Decision in - PowerPoint Presentation

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The Supreme Court’s Decision in Buck v. Bell (1927)by Steven S. BerizziProfessor, History & Political Science

Carrie Buck and her mother, both of whom were considered disabled by standards of the 1920s.In 2002, Mark Warner, then Governor of Virginia, apologized for his state’s “participation in eugenics.” Warner is now the senior United States Senator from Virginia.

Conservatives Take ControlIn 1920, voters conclusively rejected the progressivism that had dominated American politics for the previous 20 years. Promising a “return to normalcy,” Warren Harding, Republican of Ohio, and his running mate, Calvin Coolidge, Republican of Massachusetts, were elected President and Vice President, respectively, in a landslide. Republicans held the White House from 1921 until 1933.

Warren G. Harding, 1920Image: Library of CongressWarren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, 1920Image: Library of Congress

The Taft Supreme CourtIn 1921, President Harding nominated former President William Howard Taft, also an Ohioan, to be Chief Justice of the United States. Taft served until 1930, presiding over a generally conservative Supreme Court.

Chief Justice William Howard Taft, United States Supreme CourtImage: Library of Congress

EugenicsIn 1883, Francis Galton, a versatile English scientist and social scientist, coined the word “eugenics,” based on a Greek word meaning “good birth.” Galton, a half-cousin of Charles Darwin, attempted to combine the ideas of Social Darwinism with the study of heredity. According to The Encyclopedia of Bioethics, eugenics is a “science that investigates methods to ameliorate the genetic composition of the human race, a program to foster such betterment; a social movement; and in its perverted form, a pseudo-scientific retreat for bigots and racists.”

“Eugenics Makes the World Go ‘Round,” Puck, 73:1894, June 18, 1913, cover; Keppler & Schwarzmann, NY, NY.

Library of Congress.

Eugenic SterilizationSome proponents of eugenics simply assembled data to advance their theories. However, several initiatives collectively called “negative eugenics” were much more extreme. In 1907, the Indiana legislature passed a bill permitting compulsory sterilization of “degenerates”. This was the first eugenic sterilization law in the United States. Other states followed, including the Commonwealth of Virginia, in 1924.

The American Eugenics Society (AES) used posters to promote its views on 'unfit human traits' (left) and 'the triangle of life' (right). The AES claimed: unfit traits can be removed within three generations of eugenic-engineered marriages. The triangle illustrates three inputs: environment, heritage & education; eugenics aimed to affect heritage. Eugenics is the controversial practice of selective “improvement” of human populations genetics. AES ( 1923) was criticized for its racist assumptions & support of forced sterilizations. Kansas Free Fair, Kansas, 1929. American Philosophical Society.

The Case In 1924, Carrie Buck was institutionalized at the Commonwealth of Virginia’s State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded, where Dr. Albert Priddy was Superintendent. The same year, Virginia’s legislature passed a eugenic sterilization law. Following the birth of Ms. Buck’s daughter (Vivian, also assumed “disabled”), state officials ordered Ms. Buck’s sterilization; her guardian filed an objection on grounds that the order violated her 14th Amendment rights, but Virginia’s courts upheld the constitutionality of the statute.

Dr. Albert Priddy, Superintendent, c.1912Virginia Colony for Epileptics & the FeeblemindedLynchburg, VA. Special Collections: UVA

Halsey Jennings Building,

where Carrie Buck was sterilized

Virginia

Colony for Epileptics & the Feebleminded

Lynchburg, VA.

The Case (Continued)An appeal to the United States Supreme Court, challenged the constitutionality of the Virginia statute, on federal constitutional grounds. The Court’s opinion, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., found the statute constitutional, and Ms. Buck was sterilized. Holmes’ opinion included some of the cruelest language in Supreme Court history:

“We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Justice Holmes, the scion of an old Boston Brahmin family and a thrice-wounded veteran of the Civil War, served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1902 until 1932 and is considered one of the greatest judges in United States history. Justice Holmes pioneered First Amendment freedom of speech jurisprudence, but he was not a liberal. In fact, his wartime experience made him hard-hearted.

In the interest of accuracy, it should be noted that, 100 years ago, “imbecile” was a word used by psychiatrists to describe “moderate mental retardation”.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

United States Supreme Court

Harris & Ewing Studio, c. 1930

Library of Congress

Where was Justice Louis Brandeis?Justice Holmes was not a liberal, but fellow Justice Louis Brandeis was known prior to his 1916 appointment to the Supreme Court by President Woodrow Wilson as the “People’s Lawyer.” Brandeis was one of the foremost icons of the Progressive Era. However, in Carrie Buck’s case against the institution, Brandeis joined the Court’s majority. Lacking a written opinion, we are left to speculate about Brandeis’s reasoning. He deeply admired Holmes, and he might simply have been reluctant to vote to invalidate a state statute. Brandeis once described the states as “laboratories of democracy.” The irony!

Justice Louis Dembitz BrandeisUnited States Supreme Court

Harris & Ewing Studio, c. 1927

Library of Congress

Justice Pierce Butler, in DissentThe only dissenter was Justice Pierce Butler, an Irish American Roman Catholic from Minnesota. Butler did not publish an opinion to explain his position. Holmes, who was skeptical about all organized religion, believed Butler had been motivated by his faith.

Justice Pierce ButlerUnited States Supreme CourtHarris & Ewing Studio, c. 1922Library of Congress

Carrie Buck: A View in Our TimeAccording to Lawyer-Historian Paul Lombardo, who wrote a book about the case, Carrie Buck was not mentally disabled. Instead, he believes she became pregnant after being raped by a member of her mother’s family: At only 16 years old, Carrie had not become a mother by choice. Lombardo also provided evidence that Carrie’s lawyer was incompetent and possibly corrupt, allowing the case to turn into a travesty. This was not a fair test of the constitutionality of Virginia’s forced sterilization statute.

In RetrospectAccording to the Library of Congress: “United States Reports is a series of bound case reports that are the official reports of decisions for the United States Supreme Court.” There are now over 600 volumes and tens of thousands of cases in the collection. Buck v. Bell is one of the worst. Although Justice Holmes was a brilliant lawyer and writer, some language in his opinion is devastatingly cruel. However, the Supreme Court has never expressly overruled its decision.

When the Supreme Court’s magnificent “Marble Place” in Washington was constructed in the early 1930s, the façade over the main entrance was inscribed: “Equal Justice Under Law”. There was no justice in this case.

Brief & Selective BibliographyBudiansky, Stephen, Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Life in War, Law, and Ideas (W.W. Norton & Co., 2019)Cohen, Adam, Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck

(Penguin Books, reprint edition, paperback 2017) Leuchtenburg, William E. The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932 (1958, U of Chicago P., paperback, 1972) Lombardo, Paul A., Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell (Johns Hopkins UP, paperback, 2010)Menand, Louis, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America

(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, paperback, 2002)

Ordover, Nancy,

American Eugenics

(U of Minnesota P, paperback, 2003)