As 1913 came to an end, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the law that empowered the state to sterilize criminals and those the government deemed defective. This law had been aimed directly at a group who lived in the area known as the Pine Barrens and had been described in recent reports as outcasts and moral deviants. On Jan. 9, 1914, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the state’s new course of action.

“New Jersey’s plans for the scientific care of mentally defective children are to be tried out without further delay by…