With little say in the matter, Carrie’s case went to trial. The trial was long with Dr. Priddy dying before its conclusion. Dr. John Hendren Bell took over the case for Priddy and continued to argue that Carrie, her mother, and her daughter were all “feeble-minded” and a drain on the system and that any child born of any of them would be more of the same. The Board of Directors ruled in favor of sterilization which led to Carrie and her guardian taking the case up through the court system, eventually landing in the Supreme Court.
The case is made on behalf of Carrie was that her due process rights which allowed all adults to procreate were being violated. They also argued that the 14th amendment for Equal Protection Under the Law was being violated because not everyone in the state was being treated the same. There were those remanded to other institutions or not remanded to institutions at all that were not being sterilized. The prosecution relied on reports from doctors and reports from those who saw Carrie and her mother as immoral and promiscuous.
On May 2, 1927, the Supreme Court reached their decision. It was an 8-1 ruling and the Supreme Court agreed with all of the arguments of the prosecution. They declared that Carrie and her mother were “feeble-minded” and “promiscuous” and that it was in the state’s best interests for them to be sterilized. The ruling stated that compulsory vaccination was broad enough to cover cutting Fallopian tubes and therefore the state could force sterilization on Carrie. The ruling concluded with “three generations of imbeciles is enough.”
There was no other recourse for Carrie Buck and she was operated on and forced to have a tubal ligation. After having her tubes tied she was released from the State Colony and sent to work as a domestic servant to a family in Bland, Virginia. She loved books and was always known to be reading all the way up until her death at the age of 76. Her daughter was ruled to be “feeble-minded” even though the young child excelled at school and was even on the honor roll. The true intelligence of the girl was never really determined however as she died from an intestinal infection in 1932.
The case had lasting impacts as it legitimized the use of sterilization at institutions in Virginia and throughout the U.S. Historians have now found that Carrie’s lawyer did a poor job of arguing her case. He failed to call important witnesses, only went along with the diagnosis given by the doctors at the institution. It was also found that he was in favor of eugenics and had signed off on sterilization for the feeble-minded in the past. He was also involved with the State Colony of Virginia as a member of their governing board. Some now think that he was working against Carrie in order to promote mass sterilization.