Today in Supreme Court History: March 29, 1937

3/29/1937: West Coast Hotel v. Parrish decided.

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Not decided — published. If you don’t know the difference then you are missing a very important fact about Supreme Court history.

I pointed this out last time around but it hasn’t been corrected. Josh just doesn’t care.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

The target audience for the goods being peddled here asks: 'What does that have to do with owning the libs?'

[Dilan Esper]

The Official Report of the decision reads: "Argued December 16, 17, 1936

Decided March 29, 1937"

[Dan Schiavetta]

However anyone who digs into this case (Josh is holding himself out as someone who does this) knows that the Court actually decided the case at the conference of December 19, 1936, when Roberts voted in favor of the statute, creating a 5-4 majority which ended the Lochner era.

[Dilan Esper]

That's not what lawyers mean by "decided". The conference vote isn't final, and indeed, there are many stories of courts voting one way at a conference and then the vote shifting later.

Note that "decided" is the Court's own term of art. It refers to when a notice of the decision is published. Note as well that while usually this is the day the opinion is handed down, it doesn't have to be- Ex Parte Quirin, for instance, was decided before the Court issued opinions. But a case isn't "decided" just because of a vote in a conference.