Sterilize That Woman!

Mrs. Nancy Hernandez of Santa Barbara, California, though only 21 years old, is a mother, a divorcee-elect, an adulteress, and a heroin pusher. She was married to Mr. Hernandez, to whom she bore a daughter, and whom she is currently engaged in divorcing. Meanwhile, she took up with Mr. Sanchez, to whom she bore a child, and whom she intends to marry when her divorce judgment . comes in.

Two months ago, the police raided Sanchez’s home, found marijuana in it, took him and his common-law wife to court. The judge of the municipal court, Frank P. Kearney, sentenced Mrs. Hernandez to six months in jail—or sterilization. Mrs. Hernandez, staggered by the prospective term in jail, agreed to the alternative. But then she thought better of it and decided she would go to jail. Her attorney meanwhile had denounced Judge Kearney for handing down a sentence (six months) “grossly disproportionate to the crime,” and for suggesting an alternative (sterilization) which was “arbitrary, unreasonable, capricious, illegal, unconstitutional and such as to shock the moral sense of the community.” The judge, unruffled, replied that the terms for probation which he had offered represented “nothing novel, legally, medically, or sociologically,” and that what he had proposed was well within the limits of judicial discretion.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Mrs. Nancy Hernandez of Santa Barbara, California, though only 21 years old, is a mother, a divorcee-elect, an adulteress, and a heroin pusher. She was married to Mr. Hernandez, to whom she bore a daughter, and whom she is currently engaged in divorcing. Meanwhile, she took up with Mr. Sanchez, to whom she bore a child, and whom she intends to marry when her divorce judgment . comes in.

Two months ago, the police raided Sanchez’s home, found marijuana in it, took him and his common-law wife to court. The judge of the municipal court, Frank P. Kearney, sentenced Mrs. Hernandez to six months in jail—or sterilization. Mrs. Hernandez, staggered by the prospective term in jail, agreed to the alternative. But then she thought better of it and decided she would go to jail. Her attorney meanwhile had denounced Judge Kearney for handing down a sentence (six months) “grossly disproportionate to the crime,” and for suggesting an alternative (sterilization) which was “arbitrary, unreasonable, capricious, illegal, unconstitutional and such as to shock the moral sense of the community.” The judge, unruffled, replied that the terms for probation which he had offered represented “nothing novel, legally, medically, or sociologically,” and that what he had proposed was well within the limits of judicial discretion.