Today in Supreme Court History: February 18, 1988

2/18/1988: Justice Anthony Kennedy takes judicial oath.

Justice Anthony Kennedy

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Bibles v. Oregon Natural Desert Ass'n, 519 U.S. 355 (decided February 18, 1997): Freedom of Information Act did not entitle environmental group to obtain mailing list of Bureau of Land Management's newsletter "so that alternative information could be sent to them"

Robinson v. Shell Oil Co., 519 U.S. 337 (decided February 18, 1997): antiretaliation provision of Civil Rights Act of 1964 applied to post-employment actions (here, negative reference given by former employer against whom plaintiff, now seeking another job, had filed a racial discrimination complaint with the EEOC)

General Motors Corp. v. Tracy, 519 U.S. 278 (decided February 18, 1997): buyer of natural gas had standing to challenge state exemption of local distributors from sales and use taxes placed on sellers (the Court held that the exemption did not violate Dormant Commerce Clause or Equal Protection)

McMillan v. McNeill, 17 U.S. 209 (decided February 18, 1819): foreign bankruptcy not effective in this country; contract supposedly discharged there still enforceable here

Packard v. Banton, 264 U.S. 140 (decided February 18, 1924): upholds against Equal Protection attack New York statute requiring drivers for hire to obtain liability insurance; statute applied only to large cities and was relevant to public safety

[F.D. Wolf]

Foreign bankruptcies today are recognized and governed by Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, passed by Congress in 2005, an adoption of the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency, promulgated in 1997 by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks. I kind of figured the McMillan holding was a relic.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Kennedy was the second biggest mistake that Reagan made -- the biggest being believing in the purported "grand bargain" of immigration reform, which translated to "No Mas."

And that didn't work.

But without Kennedy, we wouldn't still have Affirmative Retribution, and Gay Marriage would be on a state-by-state basis.

We'd be a much better country...

[John F. Carr]

How old am I? I remember a time before I-9 forms, which were introduced by the Reagan reforms.

I wish Bush could have rounded up the votes to get something done in the 2000s.

[F.D. Wolf]

The Kennedy nomination wasn't a "mistake"; it was a surrender to the Democrats. After the defeat of the Bork nomination, Reagan announced he would nominate Douglas Ginsburg (who is still serving as a Senior Judge on the D.C. Circuit). But then the revelations that he had smoked marijuana as a college professor torpedoed him, and he was never formally nominated. (You can imagine how sincerely scandalized the Democrats were by revelations of marijuana use.) So, Reagan, with a little more than a year left in his second and final term, realized Kennedy would be about the best he could do with a Democratic Senate.

[David Nieporent]

FYI, he did it as a law school professor, not a college professor. Also, he was formally nominated.

[F.D. Wolf]

Attempting a meaningful distinction between "law school professor" and "college professor" is cringingly pedantic, even for you. And, no, he was not formally nominated.

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations1789present.htm

[David Nieporent]

You are correct and I was wrong on the formal nomination thing. But the other point was not pedantic; it played a key role in the situation. A law professor breaking the law in that way was just seen as too much.

[F.D. Wolf]

Very well, I will concede the point and apologize for misunderstanding you.

[AmosArch]

He propped up the mythology that ‘gay marriage’ was a ‘rights’ dispute rather than first and foremost a naming and thus ultimately a cultural dispute, although even at the time most people would buy into that since the MSM did a good job making sure its the only narrative thats floating around.

[DWB]

Justice Kennedy is a major league asshole

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Conservatives will never forgive or forget his failure to defend their bigotry and backwardness.

[Dan Schiavetta]

That’s my recollection also. There was also the hypocrisy factor — a tough on crime judge who . . .