• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

what are the worst supreme court decisions in U.S history?

Carjosse said:
Well considering I don't know many, Dred Scott and Citizens United seems to be up there.
Click to expand...

I´m one of the few liberals who think that Citizens United was the a good decision. The restrictions that would have been applied to corporate speech would also have been applied to unions and all sorts of other advocacy organizations. I´m strongly in favor of limiting corporate power, but restricting free expression is not the way to do it.
 
In addition to many of the previously mentioned decisions, all of the several decisions upholding government suppression of free expression.
(although their most recent libel/slander decisions are fine)


In hindsight, it had little impact, but the Bowers decision was very wrong, but they corrected that error with the Lawrence decision.

¨In Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), the Supreme Court heard a constitutional challenge to sodomy laws brought by a man who had been arrested, but was not prosecuted, for engaging in oral sex with another man in his home. The Court rejected this challenge in a 5 to 4 decision.¨
Wikipedia
 
Hard Truth said:
I´m one of the few liberals who think that Citizens United was the a good decision. The restrictions that would have been applied to corporate speech would also have been applied to unions and all sorts of other advocacy organizations. I´m strongly in favor of limiting corporate power, but restricting free expression is not the way to do it.
Click to expand...

Correct, it was a vicious attack on the 1st Amendment. Political speech should not be limited.
 
Unitedwestand13 said:
The supreme court does not have a perfect record in making its decisions based on constitutional law.

i was wondering what some people consider as the worst decisions made by the court. By definition, i am asking which supreme court decisions caused the most harm to American society

so if anyone has court decison they think earned the distinction of being among the worst, post a suggestion.
Click to expand...

the ones that crapped on 100+ years of precedent and allowed the New Deal to trump the tenth amendment

Wickard v. Filburn is one of the great turkeys of all time

worse than Dred Scott in terms of lasting harm
 
Dred Scott
Plessy
Madison

Those are three worst.

SCOTUS not ruling in favour of SSM is right up there though.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
I'm waiting for the bible thumping religionists to show up and call the 14 supreme court decisions affirming marriage as a fundamental human right to be the worst supreme court cases of all time.

These people are probably also big fans of the Dred Scott decision so it doesn't really matter what they think.
Click to expand...

I seen some stupid, bigoted **** written in my day, and this is definitely up there.
 
Hard Truth said:
I´m one of the few liberals who think that Citizens United was the a good decision. The restrictions that would have been applied to corporate speech would also have been applied to unions and all sorts of other advocacy organizations. I´m strongly in favor of limiting corporate power, but restricting free expression is not the way to do it.
Click to expand...

You appear to be one of the few people who actually knows what it says.
 
The court has a very mixed record on privacy rights, which I feel are clearly protected by the 4th amendment, as well as the 5th and 10th amendments. There are many good decisions on privacy such as Loving, Roe and Lawrence, but also many bad ones.

These are a couple of the bad ones I could find with a quick search:

Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928), was a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in which the Court reviewed whether the use of wiretapped private telephone conversations, obtained by federal agents without judicial approval and subsequently used as evidence, constituted a violation of the defendant’s rights provided by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. In a 5-4 decision, the Court held that neither the Fourth Amendment nor the Fifth Amendment rights of the defendant were violated.

Williams v. Pryor (2000)
The 11th Circuit Court ruled that the Alabama legislature was within its rights to ban the sale of "sex toys," and that people do not necessarily have any right to buy them.
about.com
 
Hard Truth said:
Less democracy is not a solution.
Click to expand...

oh yes it is, because our founders hated democracy and wanted america to not turn into one, the 17th amendment opened the door to lobbyist in the senate.

before the 17th senators vote according to their state legislature,......this is part of republican government...not democratic government.....which america was not created to be

democracy is the most vile form of government--james Madison.
 
Unitedwestand13 said:
The supreme court does not have a perfect record in making its decisions based on constitutional law.

i was wondering what some people consider as the worst decisions made by the court. By definition, i am asking which supreme court decisions caused the most harm to American society

so if anyone has court decison they think earned the distinction of being among the worst, post a suggestion.
Click to expand...

Robert Levy of the Cato Institute has a book call The Dirty Dozen. It lists his enumeration of the twelve worst Supreme Court decisions that haven't been overturned. After publishing, McConnell v. FEC and US v. Miller have been more or less overturned.

I generally agree that these opinions are abominations. Whether they are the worst, I'm not sure. They're definitely contenders.
 
Unitedwestand13 said:
The supreme court does not have a perfect record in making its decisions based on constitutional law.

i was wondering what some people consider as the worst decisions made by the court. By definition, i am asking which supreme court decisions caused the most harm to American society

so if anyone has court decison they think earned the distinction of being among the worst, post a suggestion.
Click to expand...

toss up ... Citizens United or trashing the Voting Rights Act ...
 
American said:
I seen some stupid, bigoted **** written in my day, and this is definitely up there.
Click to expand...

I know right? These people are bigots. They want to deny equal rights under the law because they think their bible told them to. The things people will do to support their own prejudices...
 
Grizzly Adams said:
Robert Levy of the Cato Institute has a book call The Dirty Dozen. It lists his enumeration of the twelve worst Supreme Court decisions that haven't been overturned. After publishing, McConnell v. FEC and US v. Miller have been more or less overturned.

I generally agree that these opinions are abominations. Whether they are the worst, I'm not sure. They're definitely contenders.
Click to expand...

Note which one is top of the list-the one I mentioned earlier. Miller (shotgun) was bad but its interpretation by lower courts was what really made it a stinker.
 
clownboy said:
Madison v Marbury. Every bad decision since then, and there have been many, derive from the power they took for themselves there.
Click to expand...

Lol. Marbury v. Madison is one of the cornerstones of American government. It's impossible to imagine how different things would be without it. It's ridiculous to argue that that decision caused harm to society unless you were just thrilled with the way things were in the eighteenth century!
 
Guy Incognito said:
Lol. Marbury v. Madison is one of the cornerstones of American government. It's impossible to imagine how different things would be without it. It's ridiculous to argue that that decision caused harm to society unless you were just thrilled with the way things were in the eighteenth century!
Click to expand...

18th? You give them too much credit, they aren't that progressive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom