bad facts make bad law

proverb

Unusual circumstances can lead lawmakers or judges to set precedent that applies poorly to most situations.

Meanings

proverb

alternative bad facts, bad law · alternative easy cases at times produce bad law

  1. Unusual circumstances can lead lawmakers or judges to set precedent that applies poorly to most situations.

    Just as "bad facts make bad law," so too odd facts make odd law.

    1992, Clarence Thomas, (Please provide the book title or journal name)
    2 more examples

    The tired adage "bad facts make bad law" is given new life in a recent decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court.

    2004, Eugene Soar, “McKinney v. Richitelli: Abandoning Parents and Presumptive Penalties”, in North Carolina Central Law Review, volume 26, number 2, retrieved 13 Dec 2014

    There is an adage among lawyers that "bad facts make bad law." By the 1950s, the "bad facts" that came from ignoring LaRue, Stabler, and Silbert—the disconnect between the paper allocations of the Law and the River and the wet water of the actual Colorado—were driving the basin towards bad law.

    2019, Eric Kuhn and John Fleck, (Please provide the book title or journal name)
Cite this entry
APA

bad facts make bad law. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad%20facts%20make%20bad%20law

MLA

“bad facts make bad law.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad%20facts%20make%20bad%20law. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bad facts make bad law,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bad%20facts%20make%20bad%20law.

Source: bad facts make bad law on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.