Today in Supreme Court History: June 10, 1916

6/10/1916: Justice Charles Evans Hughes resigns.

Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes

 

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (decided June 10, 1968): allowed “stop and frisk” without warrant if suspicion of armed and involved in a crime (from whence came the term “Terry stop”)

Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (decided June 10, 1996): any traffic offense (here, speeding when approached by police) is pretext for stopping car (after which police saw two bags of cocaine in front seat)

Borden v. United States, 593 U.S. — (decided June 10, 2021): enhanced sentence under Armed Career Criminal Act provision as to three previous armed felonies upheld even though one of the earlier convictions was based on reckless (not intentional) conduct

City of Chicago v. Morales, 527 U.S. 41 (decided June 10, 1999): Chicago ordinance prohibiting “criminal street gang members” from loitering struck down on due process grounds as too vague and an arbitrary restriction on personal liberties

​Oxford Health Plans v. Sutter, 569 U.S. 564 (decided June 10,2013): arbitrator had authority under contract to authorize class action of physicians’ claim against health plan for prompt payment; contract gave arbitrator the authority to construe the contract (!) so “arbitrator’s construction holds, however good, bad, or ugly”

​Ringhiser v. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co., 354 U.S. 901 (decided June 10, 1957): steel plates stacked next to toilet shifted during switching operation and crushed leg of engineer who was “answering call of nature”; jury should be allowed to determine whether the railroad should have known this kind of thing might happen

McKune v. Lile, 536 U.S. 24 (decided June 10, 2002): no violation of Fifth Amendment where convicted rapist was threatened with transfer to maximum security prison if he refused therapy, even though counseling was not confidential and statements could be used against him

Jenkins v. Anderson, 447 U.S. 231 (decided June 10, 1980): defendant’s silence can be used against him if the silence was pre-arrest, i.e., before Miranda warnings had to be given (here, his defense to murder was self-defense but odd that he never told police that)

Standard Stock Food Co. v. Wright, 225 U.S. 540 (decided June 10, 1912): Iowa law requiring listing of certain ingredients on containers of animal feed did not violate Dormant Commerce Clause; this was an inspection law and effect on interstate commerce was “incidental” even though the feed was shipped to Nebraska

Chicago, R.I. & P.R. Co. v. Brown, 229 U.S. 317 (decided June 10, 1913): upholding verdict for switchman whose leg was cut off by colliding railroad cars due to defective safety hook (in violation of federal statute); it was not contributory negligence for him to go in between the cars because he had to move quickly to prevent collision (this principle was played for laughs in a much less serious case, Cordas v. Peerless Transp. Co., the most garishly written opinion in history)

[SRG]

According to my reading, Borden was decided the other way around.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-5410_8nj9.pdf
The Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U. S. C. §924(e), mandates a 15-year minimum sentence for persons found guilty of illegally possessing a gun who have three or more prior convictions for a “violent felony.” The question here is whether a criminal offense can count as a “violent felony” if it requires only a mens rea of recklessness—a less culpable mental state than purpose or knowledge. We hold that a reckless offense cannot so qualify.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks. You're right. Will correct.

This was a case I posted last year when I was new at this. From now on I'll take a second look before posting.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

“McKune v. Lile, 536 U.S. 24 (decided June 10, 2002): no violation of Fifth Amendment where convicted rapist was threatened with transfer to maximum security prison if he refused therapy, even though counseling was not confidential and statements could be used against him”

If he’d actually been brought to trial on any new crimes he confessed to, could he at least have sought to suppress his admissions in therapy – and any leads derived therefrom?

In any case, that must be some powerful therapy if it teaches rapists not to rape.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"City of Chicago v. Morales, 527 U.S. 41 (decided June 10, 1999): Chicago ordinance prohibiting “criminal street gang members” from loitering struck down on due process grounds as too vague and an arbitrary restriction on personal liberties"

And look at where we are 24 years later....

I've often wondered about a happy medium based on objective criteria -- for juveniles, possibly even truancy. How many young Black men have been killed in stupid gang stuff?

[apedad]

So you’re OK with giving police authority to arbitrarily arrest people just for hanging out - and for no other reason than skin color.

FFS do you ever actually read what you post.

[BravoCharlieDelta]

You would be if they were only allowed to arrest Whites or Christians.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

The Volokh Conspiracy: Official Legal Blog Of White Male Christian Grievance

[Dr. Ed 2]

AND LOOK WHERE WE ARE 24 YEARS LATER....

3000 people were murdered 22 years ago, and have you tried to fly somewhere recently? Or even renew your driver's license? I don't see you complaining about any of that.

And yet over 19,000 young Black men murdered -- over six times more -- and you nonchalantly accept that?!?

If you are going to accept TSA Pre-Flight IDs, then why not CPD Hanging Out IDs? Have the high schools issue one each quarter to minors who simply aren't truant -- and then let the cops hassle those without one.

Reality is that you are far more willing to violate the civil rights of White people than Black people, even when there is a far more compelling statistical reason to do the latter.

[Sarcastr0]

Whites are doing fine, Ed.

You keep saying we are totally full of rage and predicting violence. And yet, America remains.

[Magister]

Murders per 100K in the 1990s were significantly more than today. I suspect the current increase in murder rate is more driven by political polarization or lingering effects of the COVID pandemic, but it's still lower.

[Dan Schiavetta]

In the high-crime era there was a lot of support (and some political action) on gun control. Only after violent crime went way down in the mid 1990s did we see greater support for loosening restrictions on gun ownership.

[SRG]

When Thomas does his usual shtick of reciting all the horrors at length - as he does when dissenting in DP cases - you know that it's to rationalise a legally unsupported position.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Wait – we’re still talking about an anti-loitering ordinance, right?

If the ordinance had the death penalty for loiterers, no wonder the Supreme Court held it unconstitutional.

[bernard11]

And look at where we are 24 years later….

With a lower crime rate?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

A resignation instead of Terry?

Georgetown deserves better.

[Dan Schiavetta]

I just got a good laugh, picturing Hughes handcuffed outside his car. With his beard, but wearing a do-rag, leather jacket with gang regalia, low-slung jeans and oversized Pumas.

[Mr. Bumble]

As portrayed by Robert Duval.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

How do we know it *didn’t* happen? Maybe it was covered up – do you think they told the real story of Robert Jackson’s death?

[Dan Schiavetta]

As it happened, I visited Jackson’s grave last month, on a business trip to western New York. It’s in a small hard-to-find cemetery in Frewsburg. It was a total accident. I used to live in that part of the state and I was looking for the grave of an old girlfriend who I was going to look up but who I discovered had passed away three months before. (Couldn’t find it.) Then I saw a sign saying “Justice Jackson’s Grave” with an arrow.

It’s modest tombstone, outsized by many others there. If I could do it I’d post the photo I took. There’s a little American Legion stick in front of it.

“he kept the ancient landmarks and built the new”

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Here ya go:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5699/robert-houghwout-jackson/photo

Given that he was a good writer (and speaker), he’s more quotable than some other Justices, which may give him some extra influence at least among the legal laity.

I still have my doubts about the official story of his death: driving around Washington, feels symptoms of heart attack, goes to his secretary’s apartment to recover (because it happens to be nearby!), fails to recover and dies.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks.

When I went it was early spring and the greenery wasn’t as lush.

The big “Jackson” stone is not for him specifically, but to mark the family plot. His wife (I think) is buried to his right.

That's a humdinger of a middle name isn't it! Probably embarrassed him at his high school graduation.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I don’t necessarily mean this as praise, but I think he was one of two poet-justices, the other of course being son-of-a-poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

(And I think one of the gravestones photographed in the above link is the one you saw, though the landmarks quote seems partially obscured.)

(And I'm sorry to hear your old girlfriend died, I don't want to be all autistic and miss that part.)

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks for the kind words.

This was one of two “nice girls” who I broke up with that year because the desire just wasn’t there. At the time I was in my early 20’s and learning that it can’t be (this sounds crude) “sex as a public service” — it was important that I also feel desire. (I’ve also been on the other side of that situation, of course.)

I felt guilty about it, as one would, but I consoled myself with the thought that they would find other men. But not only did Terry die in 2022, single with no children (according to her online obit from the funeral home), but I looked up Tracy and found she had also died (in 2009), single with no children. They both deserved better.

!!

[The Margrave of Azilia]

How sad!

[Magister]

The word "resigned" rather than "retired" seems a bit odd; Wikipedia says he retired, and there doesn't seem to be any negative implication about the circumstances - his wife was ill, and he was in his late 70s.

[Dan Schiavetta]

This reminds me of the egregiously ahistorical movie "The King's Speech", which has Stanley Baldwin "resigning" as Prime Minister because Hitler was too much for him. In fact he was simply retiring, after a long public life.

[Syd Henderson]

If you're writing about Hughes, you're mistaken. This was his resignation as associate Justice in 1916 to run for President, not his 1941 retirement as Chief Justice.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

"Aaaahl be bahck."

[Neugierige]

Well, Terry like all 4th amendment cases, merely says that something is constitutional, not that it is legal. The question before the court was "Has Detective McFadden done something that no law could authorize?" Whether Ohio law allowed it was irrelevant to exclusion, even in Ohio's courts that heard it first.

I realize a lot of the media runs around saying "Terry authorized..." but that's legally not true. Congress would have to authorize federal agents to have that power. And the people of the states would have to authorize theirs.

[Dan Schiavetta]

For those uninitiated, the cite for Cordas is 27 N.Y.S.2d 198 (N.Y. City Ct. 1941). When I closed up my law firm and had to throw out all those wonderful lawbooks I kept that volume.

[Dan Schiavetta]

The judge’s name was Frank A. Carlin and other examples of his florid style, though not as extensive, can be found in Mueller v. Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, 41 N.Y.S.2d 799, Koistinen v. American Export Lines, 83 N.Y.S.2d 297 and Yashar v. Yakovac, 48 N.Y.S.2d 128.