For this paper, you will be analyzing two critical judicial opinions as primary sources and placing them within a consideration of eugenics in American law and society in the early twentieth century. The first opinion is from the New Jersey Supreme Court, in which the court strikes down New Jersey’s forced sterilization law as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The case is Smith v. Board of Examiners, 85 N.J.L. 46 (1913). The second opinion is from the United States Supreme Court, in which the court upholds Virginia’s forced sterilization law as not violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, the case is Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927).

First, you are to analyze, comparing and contrasting, the legal arguments within the tiro opinions. How do they reach opposite conclusions?

Second, you are to situate the conflict between Smith and Buck within their historical context.