Buck v. Bell

May 2, 2027, is the centennial of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Buck v. Bell. That lawsuit challenged a 1924 Virginia law that permitted state doctors to perform surgery on people against their will for “eugenic” purposes. The preamble of the law described its goal: “An Act. . . to prevent the procreation of feebleminded, insane, epileptic, inebriate, criminalistic and other degenerate persons . . . with inferior hereditary potentialities.”

Carrie Buck, a teenager from Charlottesville, Virginia, brought the case. She was chosen for sterilization after being labeled “feebleminded” and alleged to have been born into a hereditarily “defective” family. Both Carrie’s mother and her daughter were also described as “feebleminded.” Dr. John Bell, the superintendent of the Virginia Colony for Epileptic and Feebleminded, represented Virginia as defendant in the case.

After several years of legal proceedings, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Virginia sterilization law constitutional. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote the opinion in the Buck case, concluding his remarks with the declaration, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Buck eventually provided justification for sterilization laws enacted in more than thirty states that performed more than 60,000 operations. Today Buck is considered to have been a sham case based on fraudulent evidence; Carrie Buck’s attorney offered an intentionally weak defense and the pregnancy used to condemn Buck as a “morally delinquent” was the result of rape. The case is often listed among the most infamous decisions in Supreme Court history.

This archive provides detailed information about the Buck case. It is divided into two parts. The first part is a digital collection that outlines the legal contours of eugenic sterilization in the United States, and contains all relevant legal documents from the Buck case, early publications on eugenics by advocates for sterilization, and related resources that provide background material on sterilization laws and the eugenics movement.

The second part of the archive contains material that supplements the book Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court and Buck v. Bell. That volume was the first fully documented account of the case. It explains the origins of the Virginia sterilization law upon which the Buck case was focused, and describes the people who wrote, advocated for, and supported that law. It also contains restored copies of letters written by Carrie Buck. The book also analyzes the place of the Buck case in American legal history and popular memory.

This entire digital archive is meant to be a resource available for anyone interested in the Buck case, including students, teachers, scholars and lawyers who wish to study the case in detail. Links are provided so that readers may view and download rare and sometimes difficult to find materials that should enhance their understanding of the Buck story.

All material on these web pages was selected and edited by Paul A. Lombardo.
The full archive is being prepared and will appear at this address.