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An anticanon is a legal text that is now viewed as wrongly reasoned or decided.[1][2] The term "anticanon" stands in distinction to the canon, which contains basic principles or rulings that almost all people support.[3]

In the United States

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The anticanon in U.S. constitutional law is a small set of U.S. Supreme Court judgements that have subsequently become widely considered to have been grievously mistaken for their poor legal reasoning and negative consequences.[4][5][6][7][8] Anticanon judgments usually uphold government policies that promote discrimination and oppression.[9] Many have never been formally overturned, though the Supreme Court has usually limited their later effects, rhetorically repudiated them, and refused to cite them in subsequent cases.

These cases are:[4]

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857): held that the U.S. Constitution did not extend American citizenship to people of black African descent, and thus they could not enjoy the rights and privileges the Constitution conferred upon American citizens.[10] Overturned by the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to "[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof."

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): established the doctrine of separate but equal by holding that racial segregation does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment as long as facilities are equal in quality.[11] Overturned (de facto) by Brown v. Board of Education, which held that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.[11]

Lochner v. New York (1905): held that a New York statute prescribing maximum working hours for bakers violated the bakers' right to freedom of contract under the Fourteenth Amendment.[12] Lochner is part of the Lochner era in constitutional law, wherein the Supreme Court struck down many state economic regulations under the doctrine of substantive due process.[13]: 36  The Lochner era ended in the late 1930s, usually attributed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's court-packing threat, with "the switch in time that saved nine" in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (1937) (upholding a minimum wage law enacted by Washington state).[13]: 47 

Buck v. Bell (1927): upheld a Virginia statute instituting compulsory sterilization of the intellectually disabled "for the protection and health of the state".[14] The Buck decision reflected the then-growing popularity of the American eugenics movement, which believed that preventing the disabled from reproducing would enhance the genetic quality of the U.S. population.[15] Though Buck has never been expressly overturned, it was later weakened by Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942) (striking down a law permitting the compulsory sterilization of criminals). By this time the American eugenics movement was losing support, and it was completely discredited among both legislators and the general public following the exposure of Nazi Germany's mass-extermination policies.[16]

Korematsu v. United States (1944): upheld the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast Military Area during World War II, permitting the removal of West Coast Japanese Americans to exclusion camps. Decided on the same day as Ex parte Endo, which held that loyal citizens could not be detained without a hearing. Ex parte Endo effectively ended Japanese American exclusion and internment. Chief Justice John Roberts explicitly repudiated the Korematsu decision in his majority opinion in the 2018 case of Trump v. Hawaii (vacating the injunction against Executive Order 13780, also known as Travel Ban 2.0, and thereby allowing it to take effect). The statement has no precedential effect, and so does not legally "overrule" Korematsu, because it was dicta.[17]

References

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  1. ^ Luxembourg, Université du (18 April 2024). "Lunchtime seminar: Instant Anticanon: The UN mass tort litigation memos". University of Luxembourg.
  2. ^ Greene, Jamal (December 2011). "The Anti-Canon". Harvard Law Review. 125 (2): 404. This discussion raises the question of whether other constitutional systems have their own "anticanons." That question exceeds this Article's scope, but two possible examples come to mind.
  3. ^ Somin, Ilya (August 17, 2021). "Terrible Supreme Court Decisions that Should be Added to the "Anticanon" of Constitutional Law—Part I". Reason.
  4. ^ a b Greene, Jamal (December 20, 2011). "The Anticanon". Harvard Law Review. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  5. ^ Lam, Charles (February 17, 2019). "What we can learn from Fred Korematsu, 75 years after the Supreme Court ruled against him". NBC News. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  6. ^ Amar, Akhil (2011). "Plessy v. Ferguson and the Anti-Canon". Pepperdine Law Review. 39 (1): 75–90. hdl:20.500.13051/3125.
  7. ^ Graber, Mark A. (2011). "Hollow Hopes and Exaggerated Fears: the Canon/Anticanon in Context". Harvard Law Review Forum. 125 (2).
  8. ^ Levinson, Sanford (2011). "Is Dred Scott Really the Worst Opinion of All Time? Why Prigg Is Worse Than Dred Scott (But Is Likely to Stay Out of the "Anticanon")". Harvard Law Review Forum. 125 (2).
  9. ^ Somin, Ilya (August 21, 2021). "Terrible Supreme Court Decisions that Should be Added to the "Anticanon" of Constitutional Law – Part I". Reason. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
  10. ^ Chemerinsky, Erwin (2019). Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies (6th ed.). New York: Wolters Kluwer. p. 722. ISBN 978-1454895749.
  11. ^ a b Schauer, Frederick (1997). "Generality and Equality". Law and Philosophy. 16 (3): 279–97. doi:10.2307/3504874. JSTOR 3504874.
  12. ^ Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905). This article incorporates public domain material from this U.S government document.
  13. ^ a b Jacobs, Harvey Martin (2004). Private property in the 21st century : the future of an American ideal. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. ISBN 1-84376-327-3. OCLC 52547683.
  14. ^ Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927).
  15. ^ "[www.democracynow.org/2016/3/17/buck_v_bell_inside_the_scotus Buck v. Bell: Inside the SCOTUS Case That Led to Forced Sterilization of 70,000 & Inspired the Nazis]". Democracy Now!. March 17, 2016.
  16. ^ "America's Hidden History: The Eugenics Movement". Nature Education. September 18, 2014.
  17. ^ "Trump v. Hawaii and Chief Justice Roberts's "Korematsu Overruled" Parlor Trick". American Constitution Society. June 29, 2018.
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