The law required a determination of when a person is both dangerous and mentally ill to the point that the public safety may justify indefinite non-criminal confinement, a question that implicates science and medicine as well as law. 2 One case on our docket this year concerns the sharing of responsibilityby juries, trial judges, and appellate judgesfor determining such scientific matters as the potential toxicity or carcinogenicity of chemical substances, such as Bendectin or PCBs. A different criminal case involves the reliability of polygraph lie detector tests. A third case investigates whether scientific advances in proving paternity may influence statutes that confer citizenship on children born out of wedlock. The U.S. Supreme Court's docket is only illustrative.
Scientific issues permeate the law.
Courts review the reasonableness of administrative agency conclusions about the safety of a drug, the risks attending nuclear waste disposal, the leakage potential of a toxic waste dump, or the risks to wildlife associated with the building of a dam. Patent law cases can turn almost entirely on an understanding of the underlying technical or scientific subject matter. And, of course, tort law, which assesses civil liability for injury or death, often requires difficult determinations about the degree of risk of death or injury associated with a chemical ingredient of a pesticide or other product. The importance of scientific accuracy in the decision of such cases reaches well beyond the case itself. A decision wrongly denying compensation in a toxic substance case, for example, can deprive not only the plaintiff of warranted compensation but can discourage other similarly situated individuals from even trying to obtain compensation and can encourage the continued use of a dangerous substance.