Eighty years ago the Supreme Court decided Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, a lesser-known but forward-looking decision that foreshadowed much of later jurisprudence. Viewed in historical perspective, the case conveys a potent symbolism. Despite this passage of time, this seminal 1942 case retains a practical and symbolic importance worth recalling and revisiting.

Oklahoma’s 1935 Habitual Criminal Sterilization Act defined “habitual criminal” as a person, previously convicted of at least two felonies involving moral turpitude, who was subsequently convicted of such a felony in Oklahoma and was sentenced to prison. The state could then commence a proceeding to have that person sterilized. In such a proceeding, if the court or jury found the person to be a “habitual criminal” and that he/she could be sterilized “without detriment to his or her health,” the court was directed to “render judgment … that said defendant be rendered sexually sterile.” Id at 536-37.