Abstract
Any “worst opinion ever” essay must start with criteria of badness. I propose three: (i) failure to explain why existing doctrine dictated the result, (ii) failure to articulate a rule that judges can consistently apply in subsequent cases, and (iii) failure to protect the interests of the prevailing party. Few opinions win this trifecta, but Lynch v. Donnelly is one of them.1 Chief Justice Burger and the Lynch majority would have left the world of church and state immeasurably enriched—or at least immeasurably less screwed up—if they had not written an opinion at all.
This is, to be sure, a polemical characterization of Lynch, though hardly an unexpected one in a worst-case-ever essay. It takes a certain passion to argue that an opinion is not just wrong or bad, but as wrong and as bad as any opinion has ever been. Those who want a cold-blooded dissection of Lynch should look elsewhere.
Recommended Citation
Frederick M. Gedicks,
Lynch and the Lunacy of Secularized Religion,
12
Nev. L.J.
640
(2012).
Available at:
https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/nlj/vol12/iss3/15