More broadly, rushing to sterilization—instead of providing proper rehabilitation of criminals and the ill, and showing compassion to the country’s most vulnerable—highlights the government’s lack of ethical means for achieving utopia. Interestingly, Justice Garrison limits his critique of involuntary sterilization to “unoffending but undesirable members.” He says nothing on criminal offenders, however. His silence on the matter could either represent admirable judicial discipline, or it could suggest that he feels criminals deserve the punishment. To be fair, the latter is more likely in this case; Garrison writes that “criminals and persons confined in penal institutions” simply do not amount to a “present concern.” The progressive era sought …show more content…
This departs greatly from the history of systematic exclusion of certain classes of people from dipping into the same font of rights. As the fourteenth amendment provides, “no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Well-established precedent demands that state statutes must follow several key guidelines. First, it “must not only bear alike upon all the individuals of [one] class.” Second, it “must bear some reasonable relation to the legislation.” Third, “mere classification” Fourth, the statute must not only follow “reasonable grounds” but also does not constitute “a mere arbitrary selection.” The New Jersey status makes the very “badge of inferiority” that Justice Brown dismissed as a “construct” in Plessy v. Ferguson stunningly apparent: the State physically marks and disfigures the mentality handicapped with sterilization. It explicitly distinguishes them from the rest of society, and plucks away a fundamental biological right. The Brown court deemed that “if one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane,” leaving natural affinities to determine justice. Smith v. Board of Examiners attempts to push back on that notion, and Garrison takes an activist role in securing the rights of the disabled. As Harlan’s dissent in Plessy expresses that the fourteenth amendment should add “greatly to the dignity and glory of American citizenship, and to the security of personal liberty,” not letting classes slip through the cracks. Moreover, “in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens.” Sterilization of those with physical handicaps demonstrates clear preference for fully healthy citizens, and elevates able-bodied people to