User:DaiHunter/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Lochner v. New York

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
Classic formalist Supreme Court case from 1908 everyone studies in law school as an example of judicial overstepping and poor reasoning. As I was a lawyer in my past life I thought it would be good to evaluate something I actually know something about.

Evaluate the article
Introductory sentence / paragraph doesn't really get to the point at all of why Lochner is famous, although by the end of the introductory sentence the Holmes dissent is mentioned, although it doesn't say what the position of it was, which is what Lochner is known for today. I think this is a major flaw in the introduction.

The article does manage to explore all of the aspects of the opinion, and the context. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that it's not obvious why the case is important unless you get really far down the article.

They do end up doing the most famous direct quotation as well: "THe fourtheeth amendment does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer's SOcial Statics".

Good summaries of the legal arguments of the majority and minority positions.

I think the images are nice; they do give a sense of the history - powerful white men with curly mustaches making preposterous decisions - and they do picture Holmes, who was the most important figure on the Supreme Court at the time.

I would probably improve the article by moving the Holmes Dissent up closer to the top and mentioning it more prominently in the lead.