Today in Supreme Court History: September 11, 1958

9/11/1958: Cooper v. Aaron is argued.

Comments

[Enrique]

Alas, Cooper v Aaron announces the erroneous doctrine of "judicial supremacy" but devotes only a few sentences to President's Eisenhower's decision to use military force to enforce the federal court order in this case; see: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3317895

[Cal Cetín]

I wonder which did the job in enforcing the desegregation order - Eisenhower's deployment of troops, or the Supreme Court's grandiosity?

I suspect the presence of troops - ordered by the executive, not the judiciary - is what got the order complied with.

Or maybe the good old boys were sitting around planning to block the black students from the school, and one of them pulled out his copy of the Court's decision:

"Lookee here, boys, says here that the Supreme Court's decisions are the law of the land. I mean, I'd love to throw myself against the bayonets of those tyrannical occupying troops, but it's a bridge too far when you ask me to disobey the SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND. I'm out."