Today in Supreme Court History: March 2, 2016

3/2/2016: Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt argued.

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (decided March 2, 1824): power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce also includes navigation (this holding became huge as technology advanced; it later was applied to trains, automobiles, radio, etc. -- to my mind the 19th century, more than the 20th or any other century, was the most transformative, as to technology and how it changed our lives)

Snyder v. Phelps, 562 U.S. 443 (decided March 2, 2011): odious acts of Westboro Baptist Church (holding signs at burials of servicemen killed in the line of duty saying they were killed by God as punishment for nation's acceptance of gay rights) did not hinder burial and were protected by First Amendment; dismisses grieving father's suit for intentional infliction of emotional distress

Clay v. Field, 138 U.S. 464 (decided March 2, 1891): another case holding that pre-Civil War plantation's value is what it was worth with the use of slaves but not including value of the slaves themselves

Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133 (decided March 2, 2010): after conviction for possession of ammunition, prior state conviction for battery was not predicate for increased sentence under Armed Career Criminal Act; state statute as to battery did not necessarily involve "physical force" as required by ACCA, just "touching"

Peguero v. United States, 526 U.S. 23 (decided March 2, 1999): trial judge must advise convicted felon of his right to appeal sentence but if he knows about this anyway it's harmless error

Packwood v. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, 510 U.S. 1319 (decided March 2, 1994): Rehnquist rejects Senator Packwood's argument that his Fourth Amendment right to privacy is violated by Senate Ethics Committee subpoena for his diaries; doubts four Justices would grant cert (though it never got that far; accused of sexual harassment, Packwood resigned)

Voinovich v. Quilter, 507 U.S. 146 (decided March 2, 1993): creation of majority-minority districts did not necessarily violate Voting Rights Act prohibition on vote dilution (Virginia legislature was aiming for 55% black representation in that part of the state)

New York v. O'Neill, 359 U.S. 1 (decided March 2, 1959): Dormant Commerce Clause not violated by statutes in 42 states permitting witnesses to be subpoenaed in criminal cases for testimony out-of-state

United States v. New York, 315 U.S. 510 (decided March 2, 1942): The United States and New York fight over distribution of bankrupt employer's assets to pay taxes due. Byrnes talks about "arithmetic" versus "quadratic" formulas for determining setoff (but I don't see any math in the opinion); holds that unpaid social security taxes (federal) are offset by unemployment fund taxes (state).

Whitfield v. Ohio, 297 U.S. 431 (decided March 2, 1936): Ohio statute prohibiting sale of prison-made goods did not violate Dormant Commerce Clause even though it included prison-made goods from out of state (sale was of "men's work shirts")

[Commenter_XY]

captcrisis, I think the advent of AI will be as consequential in the 21st century (reading your comment about 19th century). I am brushing up on my Asimov reading. 🙂

[John F. Carr]

Asimov was way too optimistic.

[apedad]

". . . to my mind the 19th century, more than the 20th or any other century, was the most transformative, as to technology and how it changed our lives."

I dunno....I might call it a draw.

19th century
Railroad (steam engines)
Telegraph
Telephone
Transatlantic cable
Advances in medicine (from the Civil War)
Mass industrialization

20th century
Radio
TV
Computers
Internet
Flight
Space flight
Satellites (global communication)
Nuke energy (and weapons)

[Dan Schiavetta]

20th century inventions were just extensions of things invented in the 19th century.

Think of how the world was in 1800. No electricity, no locomotion except by horse.

By 1900: trains, gas and then electric light, telephone, radio, cars, airplanes (in a couple of years), and the attendant changes in what government does, and the relationship of the states to the federal government.

The only new thing I can think of in the 20th century, which did not exist in any form before, was splitting the atom. As for the internet and AI, those were just extensions of the harnessing of electricity.

[Syd Henderson]

Lasers were new also.

[Dan Schiavetta]

They’re just a form of electric light.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Even the Jewish space lasers?

[Dan Schiavetta]

I agree, that might be new

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

I listed below the change of farmers from barter to cash crops, buying tools and clothes instead of making their own from scratch. I don't think any of the other changes would have been economically feasible without all those farm workers switching to city and factory work. Nothing in the 20th century freed up as many workers as steam power, and that is what drove industrialization.

[John F. Carr]

The changes spanned centuries instead of fitting within them. (First) Industrial Revolution centered around 1800 in England's dark satanic mills, based on water and steam. Second Industrial Revolution centered around 1900 in America, based on electricity. Third centered around 2000, based on computers.

The first brought misery to many before it brought prosperity to most. The second was a rising tide that lifted all boats. The third is still controversial.

[David Nieporent]

I dunno….I might call it a draw.

Add to the 20th century's ledger agriculture's green revolution. Remember that as late as the 1970s some people were still talking about mass global starvation.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Those people are still talking about the same mass starvation, and were and still are idiots.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Mass starvation was a real concern. In 1970 the world annual population growth rate was 2.1%. Now it’s 0.1%.

[Dan Schiavetta]

sorry -- 0.8%.

In fact many experts think world population will reach a maximum in 70 - 80 years, and then actually start decreasing. All the while, food production will continue to become more efficient.

[apedad]

Re: Snyder v. Phelps (postscript)

Since the Snyder family lost, the 4th Circuit ordered Albert Snyder (father), to pay Westboro $16,510.80 for their attorney fees. Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly offered to pick up that cost.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Good for Bill!

[The Margrave of Azilia]

We have loser pays now?

[Dan Schiavetta]

In a civil rights lawsuit, loser pays. 42 U.S.C. 1988. Though it's discretionary -- and it's a mystery to me why the judge awarded fees against Snyder.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

to my mind the 19th century, more than the 20th or any other century, was the most transformative, as to technology and how it changed our lives).

I read a history of the US from roughly 1776-1840; dry as dust, couldn’t read more than a couple of pages at a time, and someone borrowed it without returning it, so I don’t remember the name.

But it amazed me how much the country changed. Houses went from post and beam to more or less today’s style, other than two- and three-floor high wall studs and no drywall, and with separate rooms with a dedicated cooking stove and fireplace instead of one combined fire in the center of the house. Farmers went from building their own tools to buying them, and women went from spinning thread, weaving cloth, and sewing drab undyed clothes to buying store clothes in various colors and being able to have curtains for privacy. This also mean raising a lot more cash crops rather than barter.

The history purposely ended just as trains began transforming travel and just before the telegraph revolutionized communications.

Before I read it, I would have guessed that other than steam trains and ships, the two endpoints were similar.

A legal history of the US, from colonial days to modern times, also had some interesting changes, although I think most were a century earlier. Primogeniture went out the window as more and more generations were separated by the Atlantic and locally by the Appalachians. Women could own and inherit land, and land could be bought and sold without an act of Parliament.

ETA that a book The Victorian Internet describes how much the telegraph changed communications, including brokers and ship owners who detested needing to have home telegraphs just to keep up with others who wanted the instant news of where their ships had been sighted and what cargoes their captains had bought. Slim little book full of surprises. There really is nothing new under the sun.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks!

[John F. Carr]

The Early History of Data Networks discusses the attempts of millennia past, before electricity.

[Frank Drackman]

"Whole Woman"!! (wasn't that a Shania Twain album?) thats a Decision that won't be overturned anytime soon!!!!!! I mean requiring Abortatoriums to meet the same standards as the Outpatient Surgical Center that fixes your Hernia?? Outrageous!!!!!!
I'd say it was like Nazi Germany except for the method of Termination (Love how the Baby Killers emphasize most Abortions are "Chemical, errr, "Medical" abortions" you know, just like most of the deaths at Auschwitz were "Chemical")

Frank

[ReaderY]

Whitfield v. Ohio is relevant to several current controversies, including both California’s prohibition on selling inhumane pork produced out-of-state, and Texas’ alleged prohibition on in-state activities aiding out-of-state abortions.

[Bob from Ohio]

Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt

5-3 with one vacancy (RIP) and Tony K. and Ruthie in majority

Thanks to Mitch, Trump and Ruthie's vanity and ego, as relevant as Clay v. Field in the digest

[SMP0328]

Hellerstedt, IMO, was implicitly overruled by Dobbs, which was the result of Trump hitting the SCOTUS trifecta.

[Frank Drackman]

I know, what a dolt, thinking that when Repubic-clowns said they wanted Justices who would overturn Roe, that they meant they wanted Justices who would overturn Roe.

[SMP0328]

Today's also the anniversary of Congress proposing the Corwin Amendment in 1861. The proposal was a Hail Mary attempt to prevent the Civil War. It would have prevented the Constitution from being amended to abolish slavery or to allow Congress greater power to interfere with it. Basically, it was the mirror universe version of the 13th Amendment.

[Hugo S. Cunningham]

Not quite a mirror image. The real 13th Amendment would abolish slavery throughout the United States, while the Corwin Amendment did not propose to establish slavery thoughout the United States. At his 1861 inaugural address, Lincoln indicated a tolerance for the Corwin Amendment since it merely repeated established law. The Republican Party won a winning plurality in 1860 by advocating the containment of slavery to States where it already existed.

[Dan Schiavetta]

What you sayin, mon?

[Dan Schiavetta]

don't feed the troll

[Mr. Bumble]

He's following 18th century writing style.

[Frank Drackman]

What??? I thought Jimmuh Cartuh and An-war Sadat fixed that 50 years ago? Next you'll tell me people are still getting the Guinea Worm.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

This entire blog is a trollfest. If you're looking for anything other than (mostly low-grade) trolling, you're not at the Volokh Conspiracy.

[Frank Drackman]

Maybe find a "Replacement" Blog, Jerry.

[Jerry B.]

…says the troll.

[Frank Drackman]

I know your cranial capacity is barely above the single celled Amoeba, but "Troll" is what we in what we call the "Healthcare Professions" used to call those unfortunates who frequent ER's for their various "Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Adjustment Disorders" (Now actual ICD-10 Diagnoses, but really just a secret "Gypsy Traveler" language Doctors use to mark undesirable patients,
as I've been treated in an ER once in my 60 years (for a Comminuted Tibial Plateau Fracture) I love being called that by an Imbecile who thinks history started with Covid,
"GOMER" (for "Get Out of My Emergency Room" ) was more common up North, in my part of the Country it just caused confusion, because it "Wasn't an Uncommon" (Medical Term, and No, "Not Uncommon" doesn't mean "Common", I'd explain it, but you gotta be in the Club)
name to see in the ER

Frank "I resemble that remark"

[Frank Drackman]

Wow, interesting fact you're regurgitating, remember to ask "do you want fries with that?" whenever you share it.

[Frank Drackman]

Replying to myself again,
this is from the "Urban Dictionary" admittedly a 2004 version, so maybe not in use with today's "Woke" Doctors (most of whom don't know what an Ansa Cervicalis is, want to know if your doctor knows his shit, ask him what it is, and no, Googling isn't allowed)
Troll: Medical term; The patient population that frequents emergency rooms and I.C.U. units. They are easy to spot--all are non-compliant and wait days after becomming ill to seak medical attention. The first thing they have to do after admission is eat and take a shit.
There are three Trolls in the emergency room,the E.M.S. brought them all and thay have no transportation to leave.They all need to eat and take a shit so I guess they will be admitted to I.C.U.

Frank