U.S. Supreme Court Good, Bad, and Ugly

These are some links to U.S. Supreme Court decisions to help me find them for reference. They are grouped into good, bad, and ugly (which I use to mean worse than bad). However, this is by no means a complete list of good, bad, and ugly decisions. I also added an interesting category for decisions without a value judgement.

I prefer to judge the court’s actions differently from most of the political class in the U.S. For most, a decision is good if it favors the political result they want to see, and bad if it opposes it. A different standard is whether the decision is based in a consistent, useful reading of the Constitution. Thus I might judge a case good even if I disagree with what results from that decision (e.g. as in my 2004 essay Ends Choosing Principle?). In such cases, we should look to the legislature to fix the wrong, not the courts. Of course, the Constitution is highly ambiguous and contradictory. In an editorial on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, I wrote, The rights it grants are in conflict with each other and other provisions of the Constitution. The resolution of these conflicts has been left to the courts, which seek to find a balance based upon the overall intent of the Constitution. Words are not looked at in isolation, but as a part of a whole. So, I judge a case bad when the Justices favor the outcome over the principle, or fail to look to the whole for a useful, workable, consistent balance. So, while the outcome in Griswold v. Connecticut is clealy a good one, I put it in the interesting category instead of good, because I am a bit nervous about finding a right not explicitly named in the Constsitution. I would like to see that right added explicitly to the Constitution.

Of course, who can say that they are impervious to Franklin’s observation?: So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do.

Good

• Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803)
• Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
• West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)
• Massachusetts et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et al.
• Boumediene et al. v. Bush, President Of The United States, et al.

Interesting

• Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965)

Unfortunate

• Quill Corp. v. Heitkamp, 504 U.S. 298 (1992)

Bad

• Minersville School Dist. v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586 (1940) (overturned by West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette)
• Santa Clara County v. Southern Pac. R. Co., 118 U.S. 394 (1886) (not the decision, but the preface asserting that Corporations have the same rights as people)
• District of Columbia v. Heller

Ugly

• Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)
• Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1856)
• Toyosaburo Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944)
• George W. Bush, et al., Petitioners v. Albert Gore, Jr., et al.
• Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

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