Law Without Values

This work paints a dark picture of Justice Holmes as a distasteful man who, among other things, espoused Social Darwinism, favoured eugenics, and as he himself acknowledged, came "devilish near to believing that might means right".

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In recent decades, Oliver Wendell Holmes has been praised as "the only great American legal thinker" and "the most illustrious figure in the history of American law." But in Albert Alschuler's critique of both Justice Holmes and contemporary legal scholarship, a darker portrait is painted - that of a man who, among other things, espoused Social Darwinism, favored eugenics, and, as he himself acknowledged, came "devilish near to believing that might makes right."