Introduction
In the quest for justice, different rulings are usually made. Some rulings are received well and by the majority of the nation’s population while others are often controversial in nature. Most times, the controversial rulings are usually against the common religious and moral views of the public. This paper provides an opinion on some of the top controversial cases in the history of the United States of America.
No Duty to Rescue Rule
The no duty to rescue rule states that if one is not responsible for putting someone else (the victim) in danger, then the person has no obligation whatsoever to help the victim even when it would not cost them anything. This rule has attracted various views with some supporting it while others are strongly condemning it. My opinion, however, is that this is an unreasonable rule. There are two possible ways that one can view this rule. The first is from a legal standpoint. Observing the rule from this view, one can agree that citizens are not obliged to help people in danger or risk of danger. This standpoint builds on the idea that there are legal entities, such as law enforcement officers, who have the legal duty to rescue even when they are not responsible for the victim’s situation.
However, observing this rule from a moral standpoint shows that the common citizens should have a duty to rescue rule. A case in example is the New York rape where the transit workers only watched and notified their superiors that there was a need for police assistance. The ruling of the Supreme Court that the workers had no duty to rescue the victim is highly controversial as it in a way promotes public immorality. It is wrong to refuse to provide assistance to someone in need while being the only individual who can.
Plessy v. Ferguson
In 1892, some laws promoted segregation of blacks and whites in America. The blacks and the whites had different trains which the law stated were separate but equal. Homer Plessy, a biracial man who lived in Louisiana, was arrested for boarding a white train car. The Louisiana law had classified Plessy as a black man, and this made his being in the white people train car illegal. The legal controversy of this case hails from the fact that despite Plessy being 87% white, he was not allowed in the white train car. If the ratio of his race was to be fairly considered, he should have been supposed to use the white train. Moreover, it is evident that the law had no clear way to determine which facilities the biracial people would use. Additionally, the false notion of separate but equal was not exactly the case since the facilities for the blacks were not as good as those of the whites.
In my opinion, the Supreme Court having upheld the right of Louisiana to have detained Plessy was wrong and only promoted racism. There is no point as to why people of different races could reproduce – an interaction that clearly led to the birth of Plessy – yet they were not allowed to travel together. This segregation that was furthered by the Supreme Court divides humanity. People should never be categorized based on the color of their skins.
Roe v. Wade
The way the Supreme Court relies on privacy theory to back the right to abortion is problematic at many levels. First, the court itself recognized the Constitution itself did not recognize the right of privacy. The Bill of Rights may protect specific interests of privacy such as the First Amendment right of associational privacy and the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches. However, the Constitution does not provide any general right of privacy. Moreover, the concept of privacy is abstract and ambiguous. The situation of abortion is inherently different from other privacy cases on which the Court relied. It is almost impossible to comprehend how such cases could support recognition of the right to abort.
In my opinion, abortion is wrong. Religion portrays the beginning of life to be right from conception. As a result, the deliberate removal of a fetus before its three trimesters are over is outright murder – which is a crime. Therefore, this Supreme Court ruling in a way turns the law against itself.
Conclusion
The highlighted cases in this paper are just some of the most controversial rulings by the Supreme Court. These rulings are completely unexpected, yet the constitution always finds a way to justify them. Although these rulings have provided the basis on which other cases are being determined, they are still a significant source of debate.
