Skinner v. Oklahoma Ex Rel. Williamson

This case touches a sensitive and important area of human rights. Oklahoma deprives certain individuals of a right which is basic to the perpetuation of a race—the right to have offspring. Oklahoma has decreed the enforcement of its law against petitioner, overruling his claim that it violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Because that decision raised grave and substantial constitutional questions, we granted the petition for certiorari.

The statute involved is Oklahoma’s Habitual Criminal Sterilization Act. Okla. Stat. Ann. Tit. 57, § § 171, et seq.; L. 1935, pp. 94 et seq. That Act defines an…