Reference no: EM133678652

Step 1 - Read - From You Decide

In 2008, Texas Judge Charlie Baird sentenced 22-year-old Felicia Salazar to a probationary term of ten years for injury to a child. Salazar's offense was actually one of omission, because she had failed to protect her 19-month-old child from a brutal beating by the child's father. The judge found especially problematic the fact that Salazar had failed to seek medical care for the child after the beating, even though the child had suffered a number of broken bones. In a surprising move, Judge Baird added an unusual condition to the other, more ordinary probation conditions that he imposed on Salazar: she was ordered not to conceive and bear a child during the probationary period. Following Judge Baird's probation order, some people questioned whether the special condition he imposed on Salazar unconstitutionally infringed on her fundamental right to procreate.

A similar story comes from Wisconsin, where Circuit Court Judge Tim Boyle ordered 44-year-old Corey Curtis to stop procreating until he can support the nine children whom he had fathered with six different women. The judge imposed the requirement on Curtis in 2012 as a condition of a three-year probationary term, citing the fact that he owed more than $90,000 in back child support.

Critics of both the Salazar and Curtis cases point to the 1942 case of Skinner v. Oklahoma, which overturned Oklahoma's Habitual Criminal Sterilization Act and established procreation as a fundamental constitutional right.

Step 2 - Answer the following.

Did Judge Baird go too far in requiring that Salazar not become pregnant while on probation? Why or why not?

What other special conditions of probation might he have imposed on Salazar that might have been more acceptable to critics?