Today in Supreme Court History: July 3, 1941

7/3/1941: Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone takes oath.

Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (decided July 3, 1978): George Carlin's "seven dirty words" broadcast on WBAI in New York at 2 p.m.; Court upheld FCC's reprimand despite First Amendment concerns; possibly would have been different result if broadcast at night (I listened to 'BAI in those years and they would talk about the incident regularly, though not mentioning the actual words) ("she was working for the friends of 'BAI" -- anyone remember that song?)

Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490 (decided July 3, 1989): Missouri declared that a fetus was a person and forbade public funds being used for abortions or gov't employed personnel from performing them; Court said this was consistent with Roe

Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517 (decided July 3, 1984): don't need a warrant to search a prisoner's belongings (no post-deprivation expectation of privacy) (what did they find? a ripped pillow -- aha! destroying government property!)

United States v. Karo, 468 U.S. 705 (decided July 3, 1984): evidence seized without warrant (can of ether used to make cocaine) did not invalidate arrest justified by lawfully obtained evidence (smell of ether and sighting of can outside)

Bell v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 637 (decided July 3, 1978): striking down Ohio's death penalty statute because it did not allow for mitigating factors in sentencing (such as character, past record)

Regan v. Time, Inc., 468 U.S. 641 (decided July 3, 1984): statute prohibing photographing of money struck down because the exception for "newsworthy purposes" was too vague (purpose of statute was obviously to prevent counterfeiting, the February cover of Sports Illustrated -- no, not the swimsuit issue! -- had a color photo of $100 bills pouring into a basketball hoop (I knew someone who would put a dollar bill onto the library copy machine and then put the trimmed-down copies into the change machine next to it -- the ploy worked but they finally caught him)

County of Allegheny v. ACLU, 492 U.S. 573 (decided July 3, 1989): Establishment Clause violated by creche on courthouse staircase but not by menorah outside county building next to Christmas tree and "a sign saluting liberty" (I wonder if this was the traditional "Liberty" statue with bare breasts -- ?)

Wasman v. United States, 468 U.S. 559 (decided July 3, 1984): after retrial and conviction after successful appeal the court can consider offenses committed after original conviction in determining sentencing

[DaivdBehar]

These cases show the Supreme Court to be fools and clowns. They show a bias toward the payer of their checks, the government. These Ivy indoctrinated dipshits need to go. Replace them with rotating members of a national jury pool.

[DaivdBehar]

These cases say, Welcome to Russia and to China, where the government always wins.

[Cal Cetín]

"the February cover of Sports Illustrated -- no, not the swimsuit issue! -- had a color photo of $100 bills pouring into a basketball hoop"

Sounds pornographic to me.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Depends on what turns you on, I suppose. Though “obscene” works under its wider definition.

As for the swimsuit issue, when I got older and started reading it with both hands, I realized how silly it was.

[Mr. Bumble]

It is in the sense that many of those dollars are coming from that bastion of human rights, China.

[John F. Carr]

_Bell v. Ohio_, one of many cases making clear that the Supreme Court is willing to allow capital punishment in theory, but not in practice. We've been averaging less than one execution per state year.

Governor Romney tried to do something similar thing to Massachusetts. He wanted restoration of capital punishment among his law and order accomplishments when he ran for president. He had a bill drafted that would technically allow capital punishment, but was so narrowly drawn that nobody would ever be executed. It failed by one vote as I recall.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Capital punishment is barbaric. My wife, from what was then a “one-party democracy”, was offended when I asked whether her country executed people. They had eliminated it in 1980.

Pro-capital punishment people are barbaric. I am ashamed that my country still practices it, gleefully in the case of Republicans. Republicans are barbaric.

[DaivdBehar]

Cappie, baby. I too oppose the death. It shouldbe banned by a federal statute. Dearh penalty appelate business is a $billion scam.

I support the Italian dearh penalty. Guard waves a cartin of cigarettes. Troublesome prisoner is stabbed 50 times. The investigation finds he committed suicide.

[F.D. Wolf]

William Howard Taft served as Chief Justice from 1921 to 1930. His health deteriorated throughout his tenure and was quite poor for the last two years. One thing kept him from retiring: the desire that Associate Justice Harlan Fiske Stone not succeed him.

Ironically, Taft had lobbied President Coolidge in 1925 to appoint Stone, his attorney general, to the Court. Taft would come to regret those efforts. In May 1929, Taft wrote his younger son Charles:

Hoover's attachment for Stone is very great... I have no doubt that if I were to retire or die, the President would appoint Stone as head of the court. I think in doing so, he would make a great mistake, for the reason that Stone is not a leader... He is a learned lawyer in many ways, but his judgments I do not altogether consider safe.(1)

A few months later, Taft wrote to his brother Horace:

I am older and slower and less acute and more confused. However, as long as things continue as they are, and I can answer in my place, I must stay on the court to prevent the Bolsheviki from getting control... the only hope we have of a consistent declaration of constitutional law is to live as long as we can... The truth is that Hoover is a Progressive just as Stone is, and just as Brandeis is and just as Holmes is.(2)

Eventually, of course, Taft would receive assurances from Hoover that he would nominate former Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes to succeed him, and Stone would have to wait another 11 years to become Chief Justice.

1. Henry F. Pringle, 2 The Life and Times of William Howard Taft 1044 (1939).

2. Id. at 967.

[Syd Henderson]

I think Taft was right about this and Stone was pretty mediocre. Hughes was far better. [The comment about the Bolsheviki does give me pause.]

[DaivdBehar]

Great comment, Bruh.

[DaivdBehar]

That is correct. The tech billionaire own the media hate propaganda outlets. They kowtow to the Chinese Commie Party for access to their market. Thanks to this betrayal of our country, the cities of China are far superior to ours, from all the wealth they stole, and the transfers by the tech billionaires, including the woke Waltons.

The lawyer and its party, the Democrat Party, are destroying our country. They refuse to protect us from these internal traitors. Watch for 2025, when an experienced Trump returns to power.

[DaivdBehar]

The robes that dude is wearing violate the Establishment Clause. They are priestly robes from the Catholic Church. They should be banned. The bench looks like an altar and needs to be banned. Put that in the new Judiciary Act. Also ban the standing and sitting, the gavel, the oaths. Ban the suit and tie. It is not Sunday. You are not going to church. Nor is the judge better than the other parties.

[DaivdBehar]

Sweetie, the Waltons are almost as big as Amazon, Honey. The singlehanded fund the Chinese Commie military including that dominant aircradt carrier.

[DaivdBehar]

NBA is 70% diverse and hates America.