Today in Supreme Court History: March 11, 1936

3/11/1936: Justice Antonin Scalia's birthday.

Justice Antonin Scalia

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Walker v. Wainwright, 390 U.S. 335 (decided March 11, 1968): defendant can seek habeas relief as to conviction as to one charge (here, murder, allegedly coerced confession) even though due to not appealing other charge (aggravated assault) he would still be in prison if relief granted

Lee v. Washington, 390 U.S. 333 (decided March 11, 1968): striking down on Fourteenth Amendment grounds Alabama statute requiring segregation in prisons

Oetjen v. Central Leather Co., 294 U.S. 720 (decided March 11, 1935): Court won't rule on seizure of land by new Mexican government (which seized power in 1913 coup); should sue in Mexico (good luck with the coup-installed judiciary!)

Martin v. District of Columbia, 205 U.S. 135 (decided March 11, 1907): upholds Act of Congress as to compensation due when land is taken to widen street, even though the statute, the trial judge, and the jury were confused as to how to calculate

Henry v. A.B. Dick Co., 224 U.S. 1 (decided March 11, 1912): using ink other than that specified for rotary mimeograph violated mimeo patent (overruled by Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Mfg. Co,, 1917) (my crisis center in the 1980's had a rotary mimeo -- donated by a volunteer, a bona fide CPUSA member who used it in her Bolshevik leafletting days -- we inked it up with an old T-shirt and spun away, our fingers inky for days afterward)

The Argo, 15 U.S. 287 (decided March 11, 1817): "De bene esse" depositions create testimony admissible in court despite the witness being available. (I have done these in New Jersey, with examining physicians.) Here, in an original jurisdiction case, Marshall agrees with the Attorney General (and disagrees with Daniel Webster) in holding that the Judiciary Act of 1789, allowing for d.b.e., does not apply to proceedings in the Supreme Court; testimony of non-parties can only be taken in a Court proceeding (I assume in front of a Special Master).

United States v. Int'l Union United Auto, Aircraft & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, 352 U.S. 567 (decided March 11, 1957): Corrupt Practices Act (18 U.S.C. §610) supersedes First Amendment and effectively prohibits using union dues to pay for political TV ads (pretty much overruled by Citizens United, 2010)

Ceballos v. Shaughnessy, 352 U.S. 599 (decided March 11, 1957): alien eligible for deportation because did not report for military duty (violation of 8 U.S.C. §1426); applied for exemption but did not follow through

Pence v. United States, 316 U.S. 332 (decided March 11, 1942): Government refused to pay on life insurance policy, alleging that the insured (a physician) had lied on his application for reinstatement after policy was suspended due to not paying premium; specifically he stated that he had never been treated for "any disease of the throat, heart or stomach". A parade of evidence was introduced showing that he had all kinds of things wrong with him. The widow was not aware of this and he had led an active life. She won a jury verdict. Here the Court holds that fraud was so overwhelming that the Court of Appeals was correct in holding that the Government's motion for a directed verdict should have been granted.

Alaska Packers Ass'n v. Industrial Accident Commission, 294 U.S. 532 (decided March 11, 1935): Hired in California to work in Alaska, to return after end of salmon canning season. Agreed to be bound by Alaska worker's compensation law (which prohibited compensation). Injured in Alaska. Court holds that California statute ordering employer to pay compensation does not violate Due Process or Full Faith and Credit clauses.

[John F. Carr]

I went to school during the transition from mimeographs to photocopiers. Thanks to technology, now manufacturers can abuse both patent and copyright law to force consumers to use tie-in products. We had a Supreme Court case on printer ink not too many years ago.

I worked on a product where we depended on customers paying good money for consumables. In our case, the functional aspect of our consumables was patented, not like the case of printer ink where a generic product is put in a patented and copyrighted container. There was no technical enforcement. It would be difficult to clone our stuff and if anybody did our patent lawyers would bare their teeth and set about billing.

[Dan Schiavetta]

When I was in law school my friend worked at Kinko’s, which is where professors got textbook parts copied for sale to students. Kinko’s got sued by a publisher and lost. We got a big kick out of what the judge said about Kinko’s:

“The extent of its insistence that theirs are educational concerns and not profitmaking ones boggles the mind.”

Basic Books, Inc. v. Kinko’s, 758 F.Supp. 1522, 1532 (S.D.N.Y. 1991).

[Magister]

I was in graduate school in the 1980s when there was a crackdown on that practice (generally, copies of papers rather than parts of textbooks). Subsequently some copy shops closed, and remaining copy shops became skittish about running large numbers of copies of almost anything.

[Frank Drackman]

In Med School we supposedly had "Unlimited" copying privileges at the Hospital Library, rather than spend several hundred Somolians (righteous bucks in 1986) I copied some 700 pages of the Sabiston "Textbook of Surgery" (still probably the best) omitting the boring parts (Pediatrics, OB/GYN, History) only stopped because I'd used up all the Libraries paper,
Shortly afterwards, we had to ask the Librarian to copy stuff for us,

Frank "A chance to cut is a chance to have a really large malpractice claim filed against you"

[Dr. Ed 2]

You ought to have brought in your own paper...

[Mr. Bumble]

Ah the smell of mimeograph ink in the morning.
Would probably be deemed hazardous today.

[Dan Schiavetta]

look up "Fast Times at Ridgemont High paper sniff" on youtube

[Mr. Bumble]

No need to. In grade school I was one of the trusted ones who would run off newsletters etc. on the hand crank mimeograph.
Then after spending an all expenses paid year in South East Asia I was the battalion messenger for an aviation battalion at Ft. Hood and would run of orders and notices (motorized machine).
Funny that I'm still here after that and jumping out of the car to smell that sweet smell of gasoline when my father would fill up and running behind the mosquito control sprayer whenever they rolled through the neighborhood.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Leaded gasoline smelled better. Kids today just don’t know what it was like.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

Is this your cloud clipboard?

[BravoCharlieDelta]

The pillow on Scalia's head when they found him was a message left by the pillow-biters.

Scalia was murdered.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

The fate of all conservatives in modern America is to die off and be replaced by a better American in our electorate and society, one way or another. From the broader perspective, there was no other course available to former Justice Scalia.

This culture war casualty appears to have been replaced in the normal course. He was old and fat and an unlikely practitioner of healthful arts. But the murder story provides craved comfort to a fan base addicted to conspiracy theories, superstition, and other delusions. Antonin Scalia, a talented performer, is still giving his niche fans what they came for.

[BravoCharlieDelta]

Who do you think is having more children?

Effete vegan homos like yourself? Or patriotic White Christians like me?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Some young people earn advanced degrees; choose to live in educated, advanced, successful communities; rely on reason; have marketable skills; and prefer inclusiveness, modernity, education, science, and the reality-based world.

Other young people are gullible consumers of backwater religious schooling; are mired in desolate, can't-keep-up backwaters; prefer religion to reason; resent those -- they call them "elites" -- with marketable skills and sound education; and prefer bigotry, superstition, ignorance, and backwardness to the modern world.

Which group do you expect to (continue to) win the culture war, in a nation that continues to benefit from the contributions of immigrants (which offset the stain and drain of right-wing write-offs in our society).

[BravoCharlieDelta]

Illegal immigration costs us $187B dollars a year.

You're ignorant of the facts, as usual.

[SRG]

(BCD starts singing "Tomorrow belongs to me")

[Frank Drackman]

OK, Jerry, we get it, humans get old and die, thanks, don't think I knew that before.
Like you'll be replaced by a "Better" Jerry Sandusky, who'll have some knowledge of amnestic (I'd tell you what that means, but you're a Foo-Bawl Coach and you need to see my lips move) drugs, and have the sense to wear a mask and disguise his voice while committing sexual assaults.

Frank "Chloral Hydrate, they don't test for that anymore"

[SRG]

Herrera: "I am innocent, innocent, innocent. . . . I am an innocent man, and something very wrong is taking place tonight."
Scalia: "Fuck you"

A man may smile and smile and be a villain

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Fans of Antonin Scalia should fervently hope that he never encounters the judgment day he claimed to expect. I would take a chance in that line just to watch him stammer.

[Frank Drackman]

You know, fans of Jerry Sandusky (quite a few still around surprisingly, and hey, yeah, he was a Sex Offender, but could coach linebackers like a Mo-Fo) should fervently hope that Jerry never encounters "Judgement Day" (All that Bullshit about how "Prisoner's hate Chile Molestors", yeah, if they're little Woody Allen Pussy's, yeah, they get fucked up the asshole 24-7, pretty sure Jerry can take care of himself)

Frank

[Frank Drackman]

Herrara was guilty as fuck, I'm sorry he didn't get "Life" in California and get paroled, play stupid games, win stupid prizes,

Frank

[SRG]

Herrera was innocent, if you had but bothered to look into it. His brother Raul was the murderer.

But honestly. do you really care?

[Frank Drackman]

Sorry, I wasn't on the Jury who convicted him, I guess you were? why didn't you hold out for a hung jury?

[Frank Drackman]

Such bullshit, but OK, I'll give you that "Raul" was the "murderer" (Busy guy, shot Martin Lucifer, and the cops in this case)
So he took the rap for his murderer brother,
again, play stupid games, win stupid prizes, (love that)

Frank

[SRG]

So he took the rap for his murderer brother,

That sounds as if he were intentionally taking the fall. He wasn't. Are you one of those people who believes that if you're not a good guy, serves you right if you are wrongly killed?

play stupid games, win stupid prizes, (love that)

His brother played the games, he "won" the prize.

As far as "well, a jury convicted him", an argument which is bloody stupid, all the more so as I know you're capable of far better, do I: need to point out that every person exonerated was by definition convicted by a jury?

FWIW I have long thought that the average American is utterly ignorant of how the US justice system works, and that an average juror may well think that despite the instruction on reasonable doubt (if there is one...) when a crime is heinous, them convict the guy, to be on the safe side, and if he's really innocent, then he'll win on appeal.

The half-brothers McCollum and Brown were only exonerated thanks to some remarkable luck, that a cigarette butt was not only found but the DNA on it was recoverable. Else they'd have died in prison, and the Frank Drackmans (or is it Drackmen? lol) of this world would have been, like Fat Tony, complacently certain of their guilt.

[Frank Drackman]

sorry you don't like the Amurican Legal System, sure the dear departed would have gotten a better deal in May-He-Co or Ear-Ron

Frank

[SRG]

AFAICT the American Justice System was absolutely fine, according to some of the right-wingers here, until the Jan 6 rioters got arrested and then all of a sudden...

[Mr. Bumble]

Don't beclown yourself.

[SRG]

It is not I. Look at all the things they're whining about - over-charging, "compelled" plea deals, lengthy pre-trial confinement, cops and prosecutors covering up exculpatory evidence, poor and abusive conditions in prison, in other words, things that people like Radley Balko et al have been writing about for years but that they didn't give a shit about.

To use the phrase that Frank Drackman is so fond of, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. How many of these rioters would be in prison if they hadn't decided to go to the Capitol?

[David Nieporent]

Nah, that's not true. They actually started whining the moment MAGA figures got ensnared. The apogee was probably the prosecution of disgraced ex-general Michael Flynn, but they certainly whined about other investigations and prosecutions as well.

[SRG]

I defer 🙂

[Krychek_2]

Assume for sake of argument that Herrera was guilty. The problem with Scalia’s reasoning is that it applies with equal force to someone who really is innocent. Under the Scalia doctrine innocent people who end up on death row have no ability to prove it. So, even if Herrera was guilty, it’s only a matter of time until someone else is wrongly put to death.

[SRG]

Scalia didn't give a shit, of course. I think he was on record as denying that any innocent person has ever been executed in the US.

There's a species of Catholic who is willing to excuse or to avoid remedying any injustice on Earth because it will all be sorted out in the Hereafter. I don't think Arnaud Amalric would have found anything to disagree with Scalia about.

[Dan Schiavetta]

“Justice Frankfurter once observed tellingly that the average civil liberties litigants are not very nice people. Frankfurter was referring to those accused in the criminal law realm, who have frequently been vehicles for procedural due process decisions by the Court. Increasingly, these decisions have not only proved favorable to the accused, but have become catalysts for liberal interpretations of the constitutional provisions concerned. Thus, there was nothing particularly endearing about one Dollree Mapp, to whom we are indebted for the 1961 landmark decision in Mapp v. Ohio, which held, in Justice Clark’s words, ‘that the right to privacy embodied in the Fourth Amendment is enforceable against the States’, and that the right to be secure against rude invasions of privacy by state officers is therefore constitutional in origin. Neither do we admire Arthur Culombe, whose Connecticut conviction for two grisly gasoline station murders was set aside by the Supreme Court on the grounds that his confession was obtained by force and that it lacked the judicial standard of voluntariness. Nor, surely, the convicted rapist and kidnapper, Ernesto Miranda, whose name has become a household word for safeguards — however contentious — in the realms of legal counsel, confession, and self-incrimination.”

Henry J. Abraham, “The Judiciary”, 1996 ed., 115 – 116 (in the undergrad class I took, it would have been the 1973 edition, but these words have always stuck with me).

[David Nieporent]

Scalia was embarrassingly wrong on some of the specific cases, but saying that he didn't give a shit is just lashing out. Scalia gave us some very good civil liberties decisions in his time on the court.

It's just that so much of the death penalty litigation was (is) done in bad faith, not based on any legitimate claims of innocence, that he was jaded about it.

[SRG]

IMO the civil liberties cases could appeal to Scalia's intellect, but his visceral response to specifically death penalty cases overrode his intellect. He was prone to that - note his dissent in say Boumedienne, where reason has conspicuously given way to emotion.

[Dilan Esper]

There's surely plenty of BS last minute death penalty litigation, but the proper response is not to say "by the way, if someone comes along who is really innocent, I'll sanction his murder by the state anyway". Only someone secure in the believe that nobody HE cares about will ever be that person would ever say that. Herrera revealed Scalia to be a jackass.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Before I encountered this blog, I generally had sympathy for autistic misfits, fringe malcontents, and backwater hayseeds. I supported funding of programs designed to help rural residents adjust to modernity and hoped that incels and awkward societal rejects might benefit from understanding and acceptance.

Now I recognize that rural electrification — which connected a bunch of half-educated bigots, fueling and spreading hate and delusion — was a huge mistake. And I wonder why mainstream society should try to help (rather than just await the replacement of) on-the-spectrum jerks and left-behind losers.

Thanks for the clarification, clingers.

[Mr. Bumble]

So it's FDR's fault (one among many real faults).

[SRG]

Rural electrification is Communism. Well, Lenin thought electrification was important, so...

[Frank Drackman]

So now you're against "Rural Electrification" ??? probably saved you a few Rotator Cuffs, "Nome Say'in"???
And I won't repeat your epithets, but you just described Hunter Biden, except Rural Malcontents would never fill out any forms to illegally buy a gun, or leave a laptop with a "Repair" shop.

Frank