Today in Supreme Court History: June 3, 1918

6/3/1918: Hammer v. Dagenhart decided.

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U.S. 251 (decided June 3, 1918): Interstate Commerce Clause did not authorize Congress to forbid child labor (specifically, to forbid interstate sale of goods produced by child labor) (overruled by United States v. Darby Lumber Co., 1941)

Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U.S. 373 (decided June 3, 1946): (argued by Thurgood Marshall) struck down on Equal Protection grounds Virginia law enforcing segregation on interstate buses; decision was routinely ignored for years

Van Buren v. United States, 593 U.S. --- (decided June 3, 2021): policeman who used his patrol car computer to find license plate information for outside income did not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act which applies to computer-accessed information "that the accesser is not entitled so to obtain" (and as a police officer he was entitled to obtain that information) (the whole case depended on that word "so", which to me argues against this result)

Jencks v. United States, 353 U.S. 657 (decided June 3, 1957): conviction of labor union president for lying about Communist Party membership vacated because government would not submit reports made by government informants to in camera inspection

Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510 (decided June 3, 1968): jurors can be excluded if they say they would never vote for execution but not if they merely express scruples about the death penalty

Hillman v. Maretta, 569 U.S. 483 (decided June 3, 2013): widow of second marriage not entitled to life insurance proceeds because husband never changed the name of the beneficiary; this is irrelevant under state statute but preempted by federal law on life insurance policies given to federal employees

Quackenbush v. Allstate Ins. Co., 517 U.S. 706 (decided June 3, 1996): Burford abstention (as to challenges to state administrative agency orders) not applicable where suit is for damages and not equitable or discretionary relief (here, a breach of contract suit against Allstate brought by state insurance commissioner as trustee of bankrupt insurer)

Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., 500 U.S. 614 (decided June 3, 1991): extended the Batson principle (jurors can't be excluded based on race) to civil suits

[John F. Carr]

I had no idea segregated transport had been banned in the 1940s. I thought the precedent was set by Montgomery.

[Syd Henderson]

That was for intrastate transportation, where the segregation was banned by Browder v. Gayle, which was originally decided by District Court on June 5, 1956, and affirmed by the Supreme Court on November 13, 1956.

[Dan Schiavetta]

thanks!

[Syd Henderson]

Hammer v. Dagenhart is one case where Holmes' dissent is on point.