WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Supreme Court Makes It Official: California A Failed State. “Let there be no mistake: when you produce so many criminals that you can’t afford to lock them up, you are a failed state. Virtually every important civil institution in society has to fail to get you to this point. . . . California used to be the glory of this country, the dream by the sea, the magic state. Now it produces so many criminals it can’t pay to keep them locked up. This is partly a blue social model thing.”