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>Judges can't just decide to have random people sterilized.

More specifically, they can't unless they do, but if they do then that's okay. Which seems to simplify to "they can".




"Judges can order people to be put to death." That's a true statement, and in my opinion not deceptive, because capital punishment is widely understood as a thing that exists, and that it is treated as a punishment for certain crimes for which a person has been duly convicted. No reasonable person hears "Judges can order people to be put to death" and thinks "Wow, so a rogue judge could just order me to be killed for no reason and that would be it, game over for me?"

My claim is that "a US judge can order to you be sterilized without your knowledge and you can do nothing about it nor can anything be done to the judge." is not like the previous statement, because it only applies in an extremely limited (at the time; possibly not at all now, I don't know) set of circumstances with which an ordinary layperson would not be familiar.


>Wow, so a rogue judge could just order me to be killed for no reason and that would be it, game over for me?

The difference is that you can know about it and defend yourself. There are hearings and chances to appeal. The sterilization in this case was done without the girl/woman's knowledge. It's impossible for her to appeal, because she didn't even know about it. Even worse is that her guardian would be the one who would decide to appeal.




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