Today in Supreme Court History: April 16, 1962

4/16/1962: Justice Byron White takes oath.

Justice Byron White

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

The only Democrat-appointed judge on the pro choice Court that decided Planned Parenthood v. Casey. And he voted with the pro lifers.

[Sarcastr0]

Also dissented in Buckley v. Valeo.

Interesting dude.

[Dan Schiavetta]

I usually disagreed with his votes (I liked that Hunter S. Thompson called him a “closet fascist”) but I also disagree with those who criticized him for not having an overall philosophy. There’s much to be said for working case by case.

[Frank Drackman]

Hmm, HST was usually wittier than that, as in his screed re Hubert Humphrey. OK, HHH drove HST to a number of Screeds, take your pick...
1: “You people voted for Hubert Humphrey and killed Jesus!”
2: “Humphrey will go into a black neighborhood in Milwaukee and drench the streets with tears while deploring “the enduring tragedy” that life in Nixon’s America has visited on “these beautiful little children” – and then act hurt and dismayed when a reporter who covered his Florida campaign reminds him that “In Miami you were talking just a shade to the Left of George Wallace and somewhere to the Right of Mussolini.”

and the winn-ah is............................................
“Hubert Humphrey is a treacherous, gutless old ward-heeler who should be put in a goddamn bottle and sent out with the Japanese current.”

Frank

[bernard11]

There’s much to be said for working case by case.

Yes. "Overall philosophy" is an overrated concept, IMO.

[Cal Cetín]

"(I liked that Hunter S. Thompson called him a “closet fascist”)"

Maybe we could get together a list of people Hunter Thompson *didn't* call fascists.

[Frank Drackman]

Good thing we had Pro-Life Tricky Dick Nixon/Gerald Ford/Reagan/Herbert Bush in the Oval Orifice or Abortion would still be ill-legal (at Bushwood) Lets see, Hommina Hommina, Burger, Blackmun(as a kid I always thought Thourougood Marshall was "Blackmun") Powell, Rehnquist(who Nixon thought was Jewish, has there even been a less Jewish dude than William Rehngquist?) JP Stevens, Sandra D, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter (Bruce Sutter would have done a better job), Clarence T,
so Repubicklan POTUS's pick 10 Judges, 7 of whom(who?) are/were Pro-Death (for the Fetus anyway),

Funny that Richard Milhouse, arguably the smartest POTUS of the last 50 years (sure, who's smarter, William Jeffuhsun? Barry? (Hussain-Obama not Goldwater) "W" (somehow managed 300+ hours in Jet Interceptors with less deaths than Ted Kennedy's Oldsmobile (A righteous Delta 88, remember when Amurican Politicians drove Amurican cars? (Sleepy's Vette doesn't count)

That great Strategist Nixon, so far, didn't pick as well as Donald J. T, ("People are saying" that anyway)

but I do miss the days when Judicial Nominees were confirmed by unanimous Voice Vote, like with Judge Carswell, whatever happened to him anyway?

In 1976, Carswell was convicted of battery for advances he made to an undercover police officer in a Tallahassee men's room.[26] In September 1979, Carswell was attacked and beaten by a man whom he had invited to his Atlanta, Georgia, hotel room in similar circumstances.[27] Because of these incidents, Keith Stern, author of Queers in History, alleges Carswell to have been the first homosexual or bisexual nominated to the Supreme Court.[28]

[bernard11]

As I recall, JFK appointed him mostly because they were buddies.

[Kazinski]

I doubt that he was a crony pick, his resume was pretty impressive in a number of fields:

Rhodes Scholar 1934
First in his class at Yale Law school
Clerked for Chief Justice Fred Vinson
Lieutenant Commander
Naval Intelligence officer WWII Pacific Theater
2 Bronze Stars
Kennedy Colorado Campaign Chairman 1960
US Deputy Attorney General 1961-62

Oh Yeah, then there was his NFL career:
2 times First-team All-Pro (1938, 1940)
Second-team All-Pro (1941)
2 times NFL rushing yards leader (1938, 1940)
NFL 1940s All-Decade Team

I'd say his nickname was Whizzer for a reason, or maybe it was the result of a fraternity party.

But in any case that is not the resume of a crony pick.

[Dan Schiavetta]

JFK lived in (and was raised in) a world of high achievers. He had plenty of well qualified cronies.

[bernard11]

Por que no los dos?

[Kazinski]

Because even if someone is a friend, if they are fully qualified, and could be on anyone's shortlist, then they aren't a crony pick.

[Cal Cetín]

Not mutually exclusive. JFK may have just had high-achieving cronies, whose only moral flaw was hanging with JFK.

[Frank Drackman]

The other "No" vote in Roe v Wade (Yes, Reverend, I realize (as a bitter Klinger) that Surpreme Court Decisions aren't Yes/No)

not sure what I'm more surprised about Justice White's carrer 1:
finished Runner Up in the 1937 Heisman Trophy voting, 2: Was drafted (but never played) by Steelers in 1938. 3: Cast a dissenting vote in the Miranda case 4: White wrote the majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), which upheld Georgia's anti-sodomy law against a substantive due process attack (I know Reverend, just a Bitter Klinger who happened to be a Yale law graduate and Rhodes Scholar...

Frank "NOT a Yale Law grad or Rhodes Scholar"

[F.D. Wolf]

He DID play for the Steelers (known as the Pirates then) in 1938, leading the NFL in rushing yards as a rookie and voted to the All-Pro Team. He took of the 1939 season to go to law school. He took a leave of absence after his first year to play for the Detroit Lions, again leading the NFL in rushing and making the All-Pro team. In his third and final season in 1941 he made Second Team All-Pro. His football career was interrupted by World War II, when he joined the Navy. After the War, he decided to pursue the law rather than football.

[Dan Schiavetta]

"Whizzer" White.

[F.D. Wolf]

A sportswriter gave him that nickname during his college days, and White hated that it stuck with him through the rest of his life.

White was one of the NFL's first "superstars" and, I believe, its highest-paid player at one point. If he had played a few more years, he'd likely be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As it is, he is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

[Dan Schiavetta]

I wonder if George F. Will knew he hated the nickname. Will was a fan of his jurisprudence and kept using it.

[F.D. Wolf]

In 1984, the Supreme Court decided the case of NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 468 U.S. 85. By a 7-2 vote, the Court held that the NCAA's control of television rights for universities violated the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts. For good or ill, this is the decision that made college football the big business it is today.

Notably, the dissent was written by Justice White, the former all-American running back for the Colorado Buffalos.

[F.D. Wolf]

As a side note, Frank Easterbrook argued the case before the Court on behalf of the NCAA, just a few months before President Reagan nominated him for a seat on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, where he still sits today.