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This article comments on the decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court on the lawsuit filed by teacher Edward Stachura against the Michigan school district, the board of education and parents of students. On June 25, 1986 the Supreme Court unanimously reversed the decision of the lower courts in favor of Stachura and sent the case back to trial on the issue of damages. Writing for the court, Associate Justice Lewis Powell argued that the purpose of constitutional lawsuits is to compensate persons for injuries that are caused by the deprivation of constitutional rights. Allowing the jury to place a monetary value on the importance of the right violated, in Powell's view, focused not on compensation for provable injury, but on the jury's subjective perception of the importance of constitutional rights as an abstract matter. This, according to Powell, was inconsistent with previous cases holding that there cold be no compensatory damages for constitutional violations in the absence of proof of actual injury. The real problem with the Supreme Court decision in this case is that it fails to provide any standards by which Stachura could structure his evidence at the retrial and by which the judge could instruct the jury.

Profiles Sandra Day O'Connor, former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Preference on judicial decision-making; Position on the constitutional right to abortion; Decision on upholding a racial preference.