The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Today in Supreme Court History: May 24, 1870
5/24/1870: Justice Benjamin Cardozo's birthday.
To get the Volokh Conspiracy Daily e-mail, please sign up here.
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
In re Shipp, 214 U.S. 386 (verdict rendered May 24, 1909): Only once has there been a trial in the Supreme Court and this was it. The Court had stayed proceedings as to a jailed black murder defendant until appeals could be heard. The defendants, nine local law enforcement personnel, had violated the Court’s order by letting (or helping) a mob carry off the prisoner and lynch him. So the trial for contempt was properly in the court which had issued the stay order — the Supreme Court. (Thhough actually evidence was heard by a special master — good! most Justices should not be entrusted with a trial). The verdict is a long decision reciting all the evidence and finding some of the contemnors guilty.
Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (decided May 24, 1983): revocation of tax exemption of private university which based on its interpretation of the Bible prohibited interracial dating/marriage did not violate First Amendment freedom of religion (coincidentally or not, 1983 was the last year this white man had a white girlfriend)
Guam v. United States, 593 U.S. — (decided May 24, 2021): Guam cannot recover toxic cleanup costs from U.S. because cleanup was not a specific CERCLA (“Superfund”) cleanup such as the statute allowing recoupment requires
Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603 (decided May 24, 1999): allowing reporters to “ride along” with a warrant-based search violates the Fourth Amendment, though in that case excused due to unsettled law at the time (and the photos taken were never published)
Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Bank v. Pennsylvania, 167 U.S. 461 (decided May 24, 1897): deferring to Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s holding that State taxation of national banks as well as in-state banks did not violate Equal Protection even thought the effects were different
Sutherland v. Mayer, 271 U.S. 272 (decided May 24, 1926): no favorable treatment to either side in divvying up distribution of German-American business partnership dissolved by 1917 Declaration of War; postwar German hyperinflation ignored in valuation
Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748 (decided May 24, 1976): statute prohibiting pharmacist from advertising drug prices violated First Amendment
Nelson v. Campbell, 541 U.S. 637 (decided May 24, 2004): condemned man informed on eve of lethal injection execution that his drug-abuse-compromised vein would be accessed an hour before execution by a 2-inch cut and catheterization without physician present could file suit under 42 U.S.C. §1983; habeas corpus not available because not challenging fact of his imprisonment or the sentence imposed (unanimous decision!) (note: Nelson died of unrelated causes in the prison infirmary in 2009)
Around the same time as _Wilson v. Layne_, and according to one source because of that case, “perp walks” were declared unconstitutional.
What kind of “scholarship” would omit Shipp for a birthday?
“In re Shipp, 214 U.S. 386 (verdict rendered May 24, 1909): Only once has there been a trial in the Supreme Court and this was it.”
Might we possibly be seeing another one brewing?
Another trial in the Supreme Court, with a jury, from 1794:
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/3/1/
Chief Justice Jay was a fanatical lawless jury-nullifying anarchist. One would have expected better from a co-author of the Federalist Papers. From his instructions to the jury:
“It may not be amiss, here, Gentlemen, to remind you of the good old rule that on questions of fact, it is the province of the jury; on questions of law it is the province of the court to decide. But it must be observed that by the same law which recognizes this reasonable distribution of jurisdiction, you have nevertheless a right to take upon yourselves to judge of both, and to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy. On this and on every other occasion, however, we have no doubt you will pay that respect which is due to the opinion of the court: for, as on the one hand, it is presumed, that juries are the best judges of facts, it is, on the other hand, presumable that the court is the best judge of law. But still both objects are lawfully, within your power of decision.”
I stand corrected! Thanks.
Bob Jones. Love it. The path to deexempting, defunding, de-accredting, shutting down, and seizing the assets of all our treason indoctrination camps and agencies of the Chinese Commie Party.
Cardozo was the Volokh of his day, very precocious. Then he attended law school, and became a clueless dumbass.
This Ivy indoctrinated lawyer decided Lady Duff Gordon. He overturned 1000 years of jurisprudence, out of bias. The precise word as “the sovereign talisman” was no longer true. Cardozo just made shit up. Why? Lady Duff Gordon bribed staff to take her and her consort, Cosmo, into a lifeboat along with her luggage, off the sinking Titanic, depriving several passengers of life. She was hated everywhere. That is why this decision took place.
This genius turned lawyer dumbass, ruled that tort liability came from the ability to predict rare accidents. That is a supernatural power, and unlawful in our secular nation. God can predict the future and prevent accidents according to St. Thomas. Not even the Medieval Church thought man could do so. This dumbass believed that ridiculous idea.
Why would such a stupid false idea become precedent? Are all lawyers really stupid? No, they are evil. This decision set off the cottage industry of tort liability. Result? The destruction of manufacturing. The explosion of costs from defensive medicine, where rare possibilities must be ruled out by endless, expensive, painful, dangerous, medical procedures. Marty, the spill patrolling robot at Giant, annoying staff and customers. Something has to be done about the most toxic and failed occupation in the country.
QA, thanks to you egging behar on I have to block you. A sea of comments of which like 5 are useful is no way to read comments.
How many useful comments do you encounter at this blog (during the recent period, roughly since Prof. Kerr left)?
Prof. Kerr was a regular contributor for years. When the Volokh Conspiracy followed the Republican Party by lurching toward the Blackmanesque clingerverse, Prof. Kerr diminished his participation here greatly.
Other than that, great comment! You are precisely the target audience — downscale, bigoted, disaffected, ‘own the libs’ clingers — that has caused sensible conservatives such as Prof. Kerr to back away from this flaming shitstorm.
Rev, you talkin’? Why you talkin’? You need to STFU until you resign your lawyer job obtained by your white privilege. Then interview your diverse replacement. Stop your woke talkin’.
Ah, how quickly you squirm away from your brash assertion that he “left” to the subjective safe haven of “diminished his participation” — and then throw handfuls of your classic clinger confetti trying to cast it as an inaccuracy on my part. You’re such a peach, Artie.
Prof. Kerr curtailed his participation sharply when this blog veered toward Trump-level delusion and knuckle-dragging polemicism (South Texas style).
You are welcome to believe otherwise, just as you are welcome to believe that QAnon is reliable, that environmental problems will be cured by a Rapture, that former Pres. Obama was born in Kenya, that the 2020 election was stolen (with bamboo ballots prominently involved), that Donald Trump had the biggest inauguration crowd in American history, that Trump is going to release his tax returns, that the Democratic Party is a Satanic, cannibalistic sex trafficking operation (and Democrats, of course, huff adenochrome), and that this is a libertarian blog that champions free expression in a principled manner.
In re Shipp: It’s awfully hard to appeal your verdict when it’s the Supreme Court who tries the case.
Hi, Queenie. What is your preferred pronoun, Honey?
Indeed.
(I practice in New York, where the “Supreme Court” is actually the trial level court. So in the Appellate Division I regularly get to say, “the Supreme Court’s order should be overturned because . . . “)
Hi, Queenie. What is your race or the race you identify with?
Hi, Queenie. Where did you grow up? You overcame a lot of adversity.
Hi, Queenie. You are wonderful, Honey. What was the gender on your birth certificate?
Queenie, you deserve a great job. Please, contact recruiters. Put me down as a reference.
“mock the village idiot until they leave”
Sure working out!
Its a terrible tactic, giving attention to people who crave attention. People make the same mistake with Kirkland, though DB sometimes makes a good point.
If you can’t just ignore him, mute him.
Say an oil spill is on the floor in your supermarket. I can predict 100 people will pass by and avoid it. Predict the idiot who falls on it. Predict the idiot who falls on it and breaks a bone. If you can do that. let me have the winning lottery numbers. Your cat predicts that a smell means you are cooking and that they will get scraps. But that is not prediction, that is relying on the past. You are suggesting the defendant must predict the mistakes of the irresponsible plaintiff. This is to plunder the assets of productive people. I predict 100 people will walk around the spill, and I will be right.
The idea of predicting accidents came from Catholic Church doctrine. God predicts accidents and can prevent them. That is their faith, and I have no criticism of the Catholic Church. That is a supernatural power they attribute to God. Foreseeability as a basis of torts is a violation of the Establishment Clause in our secular nation. Volokh, a First Amendment expert, is in denial about the high profitable doctrines of the lawyer. They came from Catholicism and are illegal.
If the plaintiff walks on the oil spill and breaks a bone, the lawyer piece of filth is making the public pay for its pre-existing condition, idiocy and thin bones. Both the plaintiff and the plaintiff lawyer need an asskicking since their stealing from the public is totally immunized and privileged by the thievin’, rent seeking lawyer profession. When there is no legal remedy, violence has full justification in formal logic.
The Inquisition, with its briefs, its plea deals, lasted 700 years, and greatly enriched the Catholic Church. It ended when 10000 church officials were beheaded by French patriots in the Revolution. This is a model for the remedy to the American lawyer profession and its garbage Inquisition 2.0. This Ivy indoctrinated fuck, this unAmerican filth, Cardozo, was an innovator and leader of the Inquisition 2.0. It is ironic that his ancestors faced annihilation from the Inquisition 1.0.
People respond to Kirkland every time. We’ve never ignored him consistently.
You are basically the only one to respond to DB. So its a guaranteed extra comment [or 2 or 3] each time.
Hi, Queenie. I think you are great. I get inspired by you, and think of more comments. The reason I reply to myself is for your convenience, so you can find my loving commentary of the lawyer profession in one place. These could be put into the single comment if editing or deletion were allowed.
I would get discouraged if no one responded to my loving criticism of the lawyer profession. Your replies give me hope. Thank you, Honey.
You can predict that if you speed on ice you’re more likely to crash, that if you use one bungee chord to fasten something on your vehicle it’s more likely to fall off than if you use two, etc, etc.
Most of the time, you do not, and it does not happen.
The modern view of mishaps is that multiple factors converge in a time and place. The chain of causation is a lawyer superstition from Medieval times. Why don’t they update? Because they are taking in $billions a year from their fake scam for the torts bar. Say 12 factors were found for a crash. If you prevent one, there is no crash at all.
Beyond the $billions stolen by the scumbag lawyer profession, they cause a cover up of the analysis of the mishap. That blocks prevention and keeps getting people hurt. The lawyer scumbag profession owes our nation $trillion for its fraudulent hijinks. Because these scumbags dealt themselves immunity, we cannot retrieve their unjust enrichment. That leaves violence as the sole remedy against these criminals.
Queenie. Stop being an apologist for the lawless lawyer profession. They blame the defendant for the shortcomings of the plaintiff for great profit.