Buck v. Bell: Supreme Court Authorizes Compulsory Sterilization 8–1

In Buck v. Bell (1927), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote for an 8–1 Supreme Court majority upholding Virginia's compulsory sterilization law: 'Three generations of imbeciles are enough.' The case involved Carrie Buck, falsely classified as 'feeble-minded' after being raped by her foster family's nephew and bearing a child. The ruling legitimized sterilization programs that would forcibly sterilize over 60,000 Americans, disproportionately Black, Indigenous, poor, and incarcerated people. The decision was never overturned; it remains technically valid precedent. Nazi Germany explicitly cited Buck v. Bell in defending its own sterilization program.