Practically every decision brought by the Morrison Waite court was an abomination.
The whole thrust of their philosophy was that the Court, and the federal branch in general, had
no effective oversight over questions arising from state laws*.
Their decisions make no sense unless you accept that the justices on this court were simply on a
vendetta against Reconstruction. How could a court so deliberately misread the Fourteenth Amendment to concoct decisions like
United States vs. Cruikshank and the
Civil Rights Cases?
The
Lochner Era (I'm surprised no one has mentioned them on this thread yet) are also deplorable, and for a similar reason -- the Court, and federal
and even state governments, had no effective oversight over corporate regulation. For all that, why not simply hand over government itself to an untouchable mafia and save yourself the expense?
I expect the lawyers and the libertarians to start telling me why I'm an emotive idiot who has no understanding of law any moment now...
*A Chase court decision, but Chase himself dissented
