The Anticanon

When the Supreme Court gets it wrong

Chapter 15 in A User’s Guide to Democracy takes on the four Supreme Court that are now considered bad. Despite the air of infallibility, the highest court in the land can indeed get it wrong. In this activity, students will choose one of these cases, read that section in the book and answer a few questions. We have episodes on Scott, Plessy, and Korematsu that they can listen to as well.

 
 

Students will choose one of the following cases:

  1. Dred Scott v Sanford, which held that Black people could not be citizens.

  2. Plessy v Ferguson, which upheld separate but equal.

  3. Lochner v New York, which deemed state labor regulation unconstitutional.

  4. Korematsu v United States, which affirmed Japanese internment.

 
 

Choose an anticanon case, read that section of the book and answer the following questions:

  1. How did this decision affect life in America?

  2. What is the reasoning behind the majority opinion in this case? Do you think this is bad reasoning?

  3. Why is it important to label something as anticanon? Are there any Supreme Court decisions that you believe should be added to this list? Why?

  4. These charts show how how often the Supreme Court mentioned the anticanon in later SCOTUS cases and whether it was a positive or negative citation. Look at the chart for your selected case. What does it tell you about changes to the Supreme Court? Changes to the country?

 

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