Today in Supreme Court History: July 30, 1956

7/30/1956: Congress enacted a resolution, declaring that the motto of the United States is "In God we Trust." The Supreme Court declined to grant review in Newdow v.Congress, which considered the constitutionality of that motto.

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Perez v. United States, 1970 WL 105758 (decided July 30, 1970): Harlan affirms the Second Circuit’s denial of bail; defendant had been convicted under a statute which had just been struck down by the Court on due process grounds in another case (Leary v. United States, 395 U.S. 6); Harlan says the issue of retroactivity should be examined by the full Court and it will come up next term (as it turned out it held against retroactivity in several cases, most relevant to this situation Williams v. United States, 401 U.S. 646); he also says it is hard for a Circuit Justice to rule on bail requests when the lower court (as here) gives no reason why bail was denied

Maryland v. King, 567 U.S. 1301 (decided July 30, 2012): Roberts grants stay of Maryland appellate judgment striking down on Fourth Amendment grounds statute allowing the police to draw DNA samples from arrestees; notes the split of authority below and believes the Court would grant cert and uphold the statute (which it did, 569 U.S. 435, 2013)

[Dan Schiavetta]

today’s movie review: Deep Throat, 1972

In high school I sneaked out to a bookstore in another town and read the (post-movie) book. For those of you who don’t know, the heroine’s clitoris is located in her throat, so she can only get an orgasm by swallowing penises to the hilt. This sounds laughable but IIRC this was enough to show “redeeming social value” and get past the censors. I finally saw the movie in 1981 at a theater in Los Angeles which had been showing it every day for nine years. The ticket girl spoke only Spanish and couldn’t answer a question I had about when the next showing was (the manager stepped in and answered for her). This was well before I married a Dominican woman and became fluent.

A sniffy movie critic (I forget who) showed his moral superiority by thoroughly trashing this movie. But it was made on a shoestring with mob money, and by those standards it was fun to watch. The jokes (the old guy who pays for his blow job with his Medicare card, “what’s a nice joint like you doing in a girl like this?”, etc.), Carol Connors chewing gum apathetically while being “banged” from behind, the deliberately bad acting, and of course Linda Lovelace’s talents. She seems to be enjoying herself.

Which brings me to “Ordeal”, her memoir which I read around 1986 when I was running a crisis center connected to a shelter run by anti-pornography Vassar feminists. Somewhat to my relief, given my past consumption of porn, it was not what I had been told. It’s a very honest sounding memoir and at no point does she say anything bad about porn or the porn industry. In fact she has only nice things to say about the director, Gerald Damiano, and her co-star Harry Reems, who “became my ally”. Her only complaint, from beginning to end, is against her abusive boyfriend Chuck Traynor, who forced her into porn and was madly jealous; he would beat her if he thought she was having too much fun on the set. Damiano and the others became aware of the beatings (in one scene you can see the bruises) and offered to help. In fact she says that only her newfound power as a porn star allowed her to shake free of that guy. Lovelace (real name Linda Boreman) had serious self-esteem issues which fortunately she eventually worked out. But her story is not the story of the porn industry. She wonders how many other girls were also forced into porn (I’m sure there were some) but gives no examples.

Some amusing little scenes are found in this book. For example, when she and Traynor go to a sex party in Hollywood and a well-known male celebrity gives him head. He’s horrified but can’t object, being that he always wants to make business connections, and she and the celebrity get a kick out his squirming.

Back to the cinema . . . “Deep Throat II” came out in 1974, capitalizing on the new Watergate meaning of the term by having Lovelace kidnapped by spies. (She was not without acting talent.) By the time “Deep Throat III” came out in 1989, starring Aja, whose technique matches Lovelace’s, there were a number of actresses who could do that. More recently there was Heather I.

So this technique (which, alas, I have never experienced) can be learned. I wonder if women realize what power that would give them. When it comes to good sex, ladies, men have no brains. Giving or withholding a good deep throat, you can control your man as easily as your dog with Milk-Bone Mini-Treats. And if it became a morning ritual, the world would be a less violent place, with men walking about in post-orgasmic bliss, willing to be civilized persons with their deflated penises safely tucked into their pants, and I’m speaking metaphorically here.

[Mr. Bumble]

Knock it off with the porno reviews.
It's getting old.

[Frank Drackman]

Different Strokes for Different Folks

[Mr. Bumble]

Maybe he should include a link to his favorite Porn Hub sites.

[Dilan Esper]

I don’t want to get too graphic here, but deep-throating is a part of the modern American woman’s toolkit. Of course it can be learned.

On another point, a lot of women are surely coerced into porn. Lovelace had a very hard time going from abused woman to celebrity and her biographies are difficult to read. But nowadays a lot of the coercion goes on in Eastern Europe and Asia instead of the US.

[Magister]

Commenters who are all men endorse more frequent deep throating; no comments from any women who do not appear in porn movies. Probably would just make the incels worse, anyway.

[Dan Schiavetta]

If, as Dilan says, most young women can deep throat nowadays, it is a big change from when I was single.

Personally it would seem difficult to learn. I hate gagging, like I sometimes do when I gargle in the morning. It feels like vomiting, and it seems like a lot to overcome that reflex. It is not nearly as difficult as it was for me to learn cunnilingus, that’s for sure.

[BravoCharlieDelta]

I'm sure if you keep trying and practicing, you'll be good at it in no time!

[Dr. Ed 2]

anti-pornography Vassar feminists

Amazing when you think about it -- how the feminists went from Neo-Puritan when it was heterosexual sex to the exact opposite with alphabet sex.

Now as to "socially redeeming qualities", *that* I have a problem with -- I'd want to see the actual ruling on Deepthroat.

[Sarcastr0]

Ah yes, the monolithic 'the feminists.'

[Dan Schiavetta]

Betty Friedan, writing around 1990, believed that being anti pornography was a waste of time and energy and urged “prunes” (anti porn feminists) to refocus.

BTW, we could have had Harry Blackmun as our law school graduation speaker and instead we got Catherine MacKinnon!

I thought her speech was quite moderate, considering, while my non-law friends thought she was “out there”.

[BravoCharlieDelta]

Whew, good job on the pounce, Sarcastr0!

The Homeland definitely can't tolerate Sacred Feminism being slandered. It harms our WarFighting Capabilities. You are protecting the Homeland! Big Props To You!

[Frank Drackman]

Speaking of Strokes,
pretty bad when Diane (Not so) Fine-Stein has better brain function than Senescent Joe, or Mike "The Turtle" McConnell, and come to think of it, Vice President Common-Law Harris.

Frank

[Dr. Ed 2]

Yes, Harris, descendant of a slave OWNER, speaking at the NAACP.

[Nige]

Dr Ed is here doing what is commonly referred to as 'wallowing in his own crapulousness.'

[John F. Carr]

Was there more than one Newdow v. Congress? The best known decision was about "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, not U.S. currency. Newdow did not have standing.

Post-9/11 even the liberal politicians of Massachusetts chose to recite the Pledge before hearings. I don't know if they still do.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Once something like this starts, it is politically impossible to stop it. The national anthem began to be played before baseball games only with World War II. It can't be unplayed now.

[Mr. Bumble]

A few things re. the national anthem at sporting events.
The first reported playing occurred at a baseball game in 1862.
Before the advent of sound systems you would need a band to play it. Where bands were present it was played at various venues and was a notable part of the 1917 World Series (to honor soldiers and casualties in the still ongoing war)
It only officially became the National Anthem in 1931.
The advent of sound systems and WWII led to it being played regularly at baseball games and the to other sport venues.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Boston's Fenway Park, built in 1912, had/has an organ.

[Frank Drackman]

Kansas City Royals of all teams, tried not playing it for awhile during the 1972 season, think I was 10 or 11 before I realized "Play Ball!" wasn't part of the anthem
And I love Hendrix's version and even Jose Felicano's (you know, Jose Feliciano, no complaints)

Frank

[Noscitur a sociis]

Newdow has pursued a number of lawsuits trying to remove religious language from various government usages. The one you’re thinking of is Elk Grove School District v. Newdow.

[Frank Drackman]

Shakey's Pizza used to have 2 signs "We made a deal with the bank, we don't Cash Checks and the Bank doesn't make Pizza" and "In God We Trust, all others must pay cash"

Frank

[Mr. Bumble]

Cash, what a strange concept.

[Mr. Bumble]

Off topic but too good not to share:
From the Daily Mail
"Bill Barr says he'll jump off BRIDGE if Donald Trump wins GOP 2024 nomination"
Just another good reason to vote for Trump.

[Dr. Ed 2]

He'll probably break the railing in the process -- although that would be a splash worth seeing.

Please tell me that Trump will make better personnel decisions the second time around...

[Mr. Bumble]

Mark Felt, a name that will live in infamy.
Pissed off because he wasn't named as head of the FBI.

[Dan Schiavetta]

One wonders what went into the mind of Howard Simons, the Washington Post Managing Editor and the man who decided to use that term to describe Mark Felt? He probably had the movie on his mind pretty constantly (maybe it was the subject of man-to-man jokes around the newsroom). I doubt a woman would have put such a name on him.

[Dan Schiavetta]

In life you rarely get such "closure".

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2005/07/deepthroat200507

[Dr. Ed 2]

The point someone made was that he corrupted an investigation -- an active FBI investigation -- in the process. And what would have happened if he hadn't? And how does that compare to today?

And poor Nixon, who hadn't done anything that Kennedy or Johnson hadn't done before him and being basically honest when compared to them.

[Dr. Ed 2]

It's actually a stroke of genius because you'd think it was a woman.

Of course, with what we now know about Hoover, who knows...

[Dan Schiavetta]

The breakin, though for a discernible purpose (they wanted to bug Larry O’Brien’s office), was ineptly done, perhaps deliberately, in that some of the burglars had CIA connections and in the Nixon Administration everybody was trying to sabotage everyone else.

[Mr. Bumble]

With regard to Johnson I guess you missed this.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/22/cia-fbi-spy-presidential-campaign-trump-goldwater-218415/

[Mr. Bumble]

Wow. They certainly went through a lot of trouble to disprove Harris' father's claim, but I especially like the last paragraph.

"Even if it is the case that the Harris family, by way of Christiana Brown, are descendants of Hamilton Brown, those who seek to attack or undermine Sen. Harris for the wrongdoing of a man who died almost 200 years ago should first gain a better understanding of the often complicated, traumatic histories of black families in the United States — and tread much more carefully. "

[Dr. Ed 2]

It takes a special kind of idiot to consider snopes an accurate source after what we know about it.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Well, that does give a different perspective.

[Mr. Bumble]

Picky, picky, picky. OK my bad.

[Dr. Ed 2]

And who was his father?

[David Nieporent]

Anakin?

[Magister]

Between this and Kamala Harris's ancestry below, Dr. Ed 2 is very keen on corruption of blood, at least for people he is politically opposed to. No comments about Fred Trump or Prescott Bush, of course.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I honestly don't know about Prescott Bush, but I wasn't happy with either 41 or 43. And as to Harris -- if it is a crime to have had slave-owning ancestors, then she's guilty.

Joe Kennedy was with the Mafia -- and STOLE the 1960 election.

[Magister]

Prescott Bush, defended as too involved with actual Nazis to be part of the attempted coup in 1933.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot#Prescott_Bush

Carefully treading around Fred Trump, I see.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Buzzfeed pointed out LOTS of problems, including plagarism, with Scopes.

[Sarcastr0]

No, Ed, with the analysis that was linked. Ad hominem is weak!