parade of horribles

Noun

parade of horribles (plural parades of horribles)

1. A parade featuring a progression of people wearing comic and grotesque costumes, commonly accompanied by floats and models representing monsters.
2. (informal) Any rhetorical device presenting a series of terrible results that notionally might follow from an act, instead of confining the argument to the explicit terms of any applicable law.
   • The Chief Justice was adamant, if alone:
     'Nothing in the language or gloss previously placed on this provision of the Fifth Amendment remotely justifies the treatment which the Court today accords to the collateral-estoppel doctrine. Nothing in the purpose of the authors of the Constitution...1970, Philip B. Kurland, “Enter the Burger Court: The Constitutional Business of the Supreme Court”, in The Supreme Court Review, Vol. 1970, pages 48–49
   • To buttress his argument, the petitioner, with the support of amicus, points to grave risks that may be generated by research endeavors such as respondents. The briefs present a gruesome parade of horribles. Scientists, among them Nobel laureates, are quoted suggesting that genetic research may...1980, Warren E. Burger, “Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 303 (1980)”, in Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center: Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 303 (1980), page 316