Today in Supreme Court History: September 8, 1953

9/8/1953: Chief Justice Fred Vinson dies.

Chief Justice Fred Vinson

 

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Another Truman mediocrity, but a good man, and conscientious.

[LawTalkingGuy]

There’s been this idea that the best thing Vinson ever did was die during Brown v Board so that Warren could come in and get a unanimous ruling ending school segregation. But there is a really good case to be made that he would have done the same thing given his past track record in race discrimination cases and even could have obtained a unanimous decision. Also given his views on exec/federal power he probably would have been decently aggressive in enforcing desegregation.

Part of this is due to his extreme anti-communism which led to some of his less good votes. But it’s interesting how at the same time the Birchers thought race mixing was communism, other anti-communists correctly recognized that nothing was better for Soviet propaganda purposes than having a segregated society, and sought to crush it.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2012/04/legal-scholarship-highlight-what-if-chief-justice-fred-vinson-had-not-died-in-1953/

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Part of this is due to his extreme anti-communism which led to some of his less good votes. But it’s interesting how at the same time the Birchers thought race mixing was communism, other anti-communists correctly recognized that nothing was better for Soviet propaganda purposes than having a segregated society, and sought to crush it.

Interesting how neither gave a toss about the actual legality of it, only how it related to fighting communism.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

" his past track record in race discrimination cases "

The "separate but equal" part?

[LawTalkingGuy]

If you mean him finding that separate but equal doesn’t cut it for legal education and graduate education in Sweatt v Painter and McClaurin v Oklahoma, in the years prior to Brown, then yes.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

I meant it in regards to the quoted paragraph, which is why I quoted it. Presumably you meant to erect and tear down a straw reference which I did not make, which is why you did make it.

[LawTalkingGuy]

Huh? I was replying to Kirkland not you.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Oops! You are right, my mistake.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

The decision in Sweatt was that the schools weren't equal, not that 'separate but equal doesn't cut it.'

The decision in McClaurin v. Oklahoma did not reject 'separate but equal.' It required the state to treat a Black student equally if the state refrained from making a separate school available and therefore admitted the Black student to a school also attended by White students.

[CJColucci]

Felix Frankfurter said about Vinson's death that it was "the first solid piece of evidence I've ever had that there really is a God."

[Dan Schiavetta]

One of many things about Frankfurter that did the man credit. /s