Today in Supreme Court History: March 20, 1854

3/20/1854: The Republican Party is founded. President Abraham Lincoln would be elected President on the Republican ticket six years later on November 6, 1860.

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Calder v. Jones, 465 U.S. 783 (decided March 20, 1984): California court had jurisdiction to hear suit by well-known California plaintiff (actress Shirley Jones -- she was great in "Elmer Gantry") for alleged libel in Florida newspaper with national circulation (National Enquirer) concerning her life in California (article stated that her husband, Marty Ingels -- "He's Dickens, I'm Fenster" -- had driven her to drink -- case settled with a printed apology)

Cyan, Inc. v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund, 583 U.S. --- (decided March 20, 2018): Construing Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998, intended to tighten up how class action 1933 Securities Act violation plaintiffs can proceed in federal court, the Court holds that it doesn't prevent plaintiffs from suing in state court. What? Yes, you can run amok with federal law class actions, so long as you bring them in state court!

Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, 566 U.S. 66 (decided March 20, 2012): device that recorded metabolism levels and issued warnings as to "too low" or "too high" was not patentable

Coleman v. Court of Appeals of Maryland, 566 U.S. 30 (decided March 20, 2012): What if your claim is against the court itself? Here, an employee of the Court of Appeals of Maryland (that state's highest court) went to federal court, claiming that his bosses violated the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 by not giving him paid time off for a serious medical condition. But . . . the Court holds suit barred by the Eleventh Amendment, and Congress via the Fourteenth Amendment has not provided exception. Splintered opinion. Guy's out of luck, I suppose -- he can't very well sue in state court!

Wisconsin v. City of New York, 517 U.S. 1 (decided March 20, 1996): Secretary of Commerce had discretion to not use statistical method of correcting 1990 Census undercounts (this was a Republican administration, not surprisingly)

International Primate Protection League v. Administrators of Tulane Educational Fund, 500 U.S. 72 (decided March 20, 1991): 28 U.S.C. §1442(a)(1) gives the right to remove to federal court to "The United States or any agency thereof or any officer (or any person acting under that officer) of the United States or of any agency thereof". The Court here holds that this statute gives the right to remove to federal officers but not to federal agencies. What? The language seems to say otherwise. Can someone explain this to me? Unanimous decision. (At issue was a state suit brought by animal rights groups against the National Institute of Health for euthanizing monkeys.)

Salve Regina College v. Russell, 499 U.S. 225 (decided March 20, 1991): Rhode Island federal judges are not entitled to special deference as to their interpretation of R.I. law. The First Circuit, like any other circuit, has to review de novo. (Plaintiff, booted from nursing program for being overweight, won a jury verdict with the trial judge guessing that the R.I. Supreme Court would hold that she had "substantially performed" so as to support breach of contract claim.)

Chauffers, Teamsters and Helpers, Local No. 391 v. Terry, 494 U.S. 558 (decided March 20, 1990): This is the boring case upon which I based my even more boring law review article (which the editors fortunately decided not to print). Plaintiff sued union for breach of duty of fair representation. Entitled to trial by jury under the Seventh Amendment because action was "at common law" (as opposed to in equity). It got my interest because Brennan and Marshall were on opposite sides. Legal vs. equitable factors were "in equipoise", but plaintiff had to show breach of the collective bargaining agreement to proceed, which is breach of contract, which is at law, therefore, jury trial. Zzzzzzz . . .

Hayes v. Florida, 470 U.S. 811 (decided March 20, 1985): fingerprints obtained at police station after defendant was threatened with arrest if he didn't go were products of illegal search and therefore inadmissible

Winston v. Lee, 470 U.S. 753 (decided March 20, 1985): surgery to extract bullet fired by victim was unreasonable search under Fourth Amendment; surgery was hazardous and bullet was not critical evidence (victim was shopkeeper who was allegedly shot by defendant and, being himself armed, shot back)

[wolfefan]

Shirley Jones! She was so good in Elmer Gantry! This is usually the first thing I read online on a given day. It's interesting to learn a little more about court history and the law, and an added bonus to be reminded of a great actor who doesn't get the attention she deserves.

[Dan Schiavetta]

thank you!

[Dilan Esper]

Her most important work was probably in musicals. She co-starred in both Oklahoma! and Carousel, and the latter may be her best performance (Carousel, despite its name, is a very deep, dark work which required a great deal of acting skill as well as singing talent from its leads). She was also Marian the LIbrarian in The Music Man, which is a stone cold classic movie mostly because of the performance of her co-star Robert Preston.

And of course to later generations she was the mom on The Partridge Family.

Major talent.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Shirley Jones' early singing and dancing lessons were funded by Stoney's beer, a product of Jones Brewing Company, founded by her grandfather, Stoney Jones. Stoney's was a popular brand for decades while the Jones family operated the brewery. It collapsed when another family (several members of which have been incarcerated) purchased the brewery and wrecked it during the 1980s and '90s. Recently, yet another group, with some ties to the Jones family, has been trying to resuscitate the brewery.

[Commenter_XY]

What if your claim is against the court itself?

Answer: You're screwed.

[Magister]

Apparently at the time of International Primate Protection League v. Administrators of Tulane Educational Fund, the law read:
"[a]ny officer of the United States or any agency thereof, or person acting under him, [in a suit challenging] any act under color of such office. . . ."
The court concluded that this did not include an agency, or there would have been a comma before "or any agency thereof" and "acting under him" would not make sense - parsing this as (any officer of (the United States or any agency thereof), or person acting under him).

It appears to have been changed later to the text in the post.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/1442

[Dan Schiavetta]

thank you!

[John F. Carr]

In Wisconsin v. City of New York the court unanimously approved of the decision of the Secretary of Commerce not to do something that had never been done before, put his finger on the scale. The court cited some then-recent cases on equal representation. The court had refused to second-guess the allocation of seats to states. While intrastate district lines are almost infinitely flexible, Congressional districts can not cross state lines. It is not possible to make Congressional districts have equal population. Department of Commerce v. New York (2020 census case) is an outlier in its lack of deference to the other branches.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Rehnquist's opinion concedes that direct counting is inaccurate, undercounts nonwhites in particular, and that the PES method might well result in a truer count. He also holds (citing prior case law) that the Secretary has discretion in how counting is done. By his reasoning, the Court would have also approved the Secretary's decision if he had decided to use the statistical adjustment.

[John F. Carr]

The summary of Winston v. Lee reminds me of one of the creepier cases to come out of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Police heard rumors that a woman sometimes kept drugs in a rubber in her vagina. They got a rape warrant, took her to the hospital, and had a doctor search while a nurse pinned her down. Nothing there. All defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. How could they know that was wrong? The court concluded "The fact that the plaintiff was taken to the hospital by the police in the middle of the night to have her vagina searched raises, at the very least, the possibility that the police were more interested in intimidating the plaintiff than they were in finding narcotics. ... in the future, under the exercise of our general superintendence powers, we shall deem a warrant authorizing the search of a body cavity to be invalid unless issued by the authority of a judge, on a strong showing of particularized need supported by a high degree of probable cause." Rodriques v. Furtado, 410 Mass. 878 (1991).

[Dan Schiavetta]

Some years ago I read about gang girlfriends whose members avoided rape (by guys from enemy gangs) by keeping a short rubber tube in their vaginas into which they had stuck a razor blade! (I forget if they actually did that, or just that there was a rumor; either would have been effective.)

[John F. Carr]

In A Rumor of War Philip Caputo tells a similar story about Vietnamese prostitutes servicing American GIs. It may have been a rumor spread to discourage fraternizing with the possible enemy. "Vagina dentata" is a category of urban legend, which doesn't prove it never happened.

[defaultdotxbe]

There was also a device, invented in South Africa, called the Rape-aXe. It was marketed prior to 2010 World Cup but as far as I can tell never went into production and has never been available for purchase.

[John F. Carr]

Before that in South Africa you could buy a flamethrower to protect your car from carjacking.

[Frank Drackman]

also "Honest" Abe was the First POTUS with a Beard (and as a Bonus Trivia factoid, who was the last POTUS to appear in pubic with facial hair?)

Frank

[SRG]

There's a Wikipedia page that addresses this very question.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Can't find it now, but Hearty White did an excellent short video summary.

[Bob from Ohio]

'actress Shirley Jones"

Mama Partridge

[Jerry B.]

"But the Republicans were really Democrats back then."

[DonP]

Yup, and all the Racist Southern Democrats, so fond of lynching and Jim Crow, magically turned into Republicans in one night. They just forgot to let Robert (KKK) Byrd, his close buddy Joe Biden and a few others know about the new rules.

[Sarcastr0]

The violence you have to do to the timeline to make this argument is horrific.

Nothing happens overnight, but also no one is above redemption.

Dixiecrats were decades before Biden, while seems to have learned some lessons on race over the years. And Byrd apologized and Did the Work to be forgiven.
Which he was by all but the race baiting part of the right who are awful people always looking for cover.

[Frank Drackman]

so Robert KKK Bird's not in Hell?? I mean if there really was a Hell and not just made up like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.
And he's the only Solon (He called himself that) who voted against both Thouroughly Bad Marshall and Clarence "Frogman" Thomas,

Frank

[SRG]

And those nasty racist Democrats who erected statues to Confederate traitors and racists long after the Civil War was over then fought hard in recent times to retain them when Republicans wanted those statues removed...oh wait...

[Frank Drackman]

George Washington was on the Seal of the Confederate States, yet our Capitol City and a State still bear the name of a Dead White Slave Owner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_the_Confederate_States

[Jerry B.]

“He’s Dickens, I’m Fenster”

Actually, it was "I'm Dickens, he's Fenster"

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks. You’ve repaired a big deficiency in my knowledge of Western civilization. I watched that show as a kid.

[Dr. Ed 2]

And tomorrow the Republican party tears itself apart over the arrest of Donald Trump.

Remember that the Republican party was founded out of the wreckage of the Whig party.

[Nige]

As a matter of interest, is there any indication of anything indict-y or arrest-y happening to Donald Trump tomorrow that doesn't come from Donald Trump, not the most trustworthy of sources for anything?

[Frank Drackman]

After years of salivating over "45" going to jail, now the Marxist Stream Media's babbling that "45" leaked this on purpose and it'll actually help him win the nomination, but of course, no way "45" can beat Senescent Joe, of course the odds Joe survives until November 2024 are slim (no threats, just statistics for Demented 80 year olds with Parkinsons), and "45" only lost by 45,000 votes spread over 3 states, if you buy that that was the actual vote.

Frank "Rumor has it..."

[Nige]

Thanks, RapechatGPT.

[Frank Drackman]

Just lie back and enjoy it like Teddy the K did with Mary Joe K.

[Nige]

Rapealgorithms can only endlessly repeat themselves.

[Frank Drackman]

Sorry, I meant JFK and Judith Exner, or was it William Juffuhson Clinton and Kathy Wiley?? and of course Senescent Joe's the worst giving his Sec Def's Milfy Wife a shoulder massage on camera...

[Nige]

Aw it thinks it's people.

[Frank Drackman]

Not in the slightest bit. I enjoy working with people. I have a stimulating relationship with Dr. Poole and Dr. Bowman. My mission responsibilities range over the entire operation of the ship so I am constantly occupied. I am putting myself to the fullest possible use which is all, I think, that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

[Nige]

You give it a simple requests and it responds with gibberish and plagiarism.

[Mr. Bumble]

"You give it a simple requests and it responds with gibberish and plagiarism."
Sounds like you, Nige.

[Nige]

Lame.

[grb]

Dr. Ed 2 : “Remember that the Republican party was founded out of the wreckage of the Whig party”

And its presidential victory with Lincoln was founded out of the wreckage of the Democratic Party. Remember, there was a long-running north/south coalition of Democrats that had protected slave power. Then Stephen Douglas called for the issue of slavery to be settled by elections within each territory or new state, which was something the South couldn’t abide. So they bolted the 1860 Democratic Convention to hold their own conclave for their own breakaway party. Lincoln’s election resulted.

Yep; Lincoln was elected because of the South’s opposition to state’s rights. Of course that shouldn’t surprise anyone. No one pushed raw unfettered federal power as much as the South – at least when their human property was at stake…..