Buck (P) was a feeble-minded white woman who was committed to a mental hospital. P is the daughter of a feeble-minded white woman and the mother of a feeble-minded white child. She was 18 at the time of her first trial. A law in Virginia allowed sterilization of certain mental defectives upon the opinion of those running the institution to which the mental defective is assigned to if that institution thought such a procedure was in the best interests of the patient. The law was procedurally correct (see page 1030 Areen 4th) but the order and such orders were attacked on substantive grounds. The Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia upheld the order of sterilization, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.

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