the Supreme Court is not infallible. They've been terribly wrong before and will be again.
The Supreme Court once protected slavery the sub human status of blacks. See the Dred Scott decision.
The Supreme Court once protected eugenics and the forced sterilization of the 'unfit' in the infamous case of Carrie Buck - a poor girl who was raped by a relative of her foster parets, impregnated by the rape, and then institutionalized by her foster parents to hide their young relative's crime. They claimed Carrie was incorrigible and promiscuous. Carrie was accused of being retarded (she wasn't), promiscuous (she wasn't), and her child was said to be an imbecile (she wasn't- she got straight A's in school until she died of Measles).
Supreme Court Judge
The ruling was written by liberal Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. In support of his argument that the interest of the states in a "pure" gene pool outweighed the interest of individuals in their bodily integrity, he argued:
“ 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, 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 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. ” Holmes concluded his argument by declaring that "Three generations of imbeciles are enough"
Virginia would not repeal its laws allowing forcible sterilization of the 'retarded' until the early 70s (and, of course, many deaf were misdiagnosed as retarded)
Though the states eventually all repealed their forced sterilization laws, the abominable ruling protecting the practice of eugenics has never been overturned by the Supreme Court.
Buck v. Bell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia