Today in Supreme Court History: August 15, 1938

8/15/1938: Justice Stephen Breyer's Birthday.

Justice Stephen Breyer

 

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Bas v. Tingy, 4 U.S. 37 (decided August 15, 1800): During the Quasi-War with France (well depicted in the miniseries “John Adams”, with Paul Giamatti) a warship’s captain “and others” brought suit for salvage (such a suit was called a “libel” in those days) after they recovered four ships which had been lost to French privateers three weeks previous. This is one of those early “seriatim” decisions in which the each judge takes his turn displaying 18th-century prolixity. They hold that France was an enemy (duh) and the ships were lost for more than 96 hours, so that the salvage statute applied, giving them the full value of the ships. (Making the captain and his crew privateers as well?)

[Jerry B.]

Did the American ship have letters of marque and reprisal? Or was it an actual U.S. warship?

ETA: So, they were a "public armed vessel" apparently armed for purposes of self-defense.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks! Seems like a strange system to us these days. Even long after standing armed services (dreaded by the Framers) were set up, ship captains were suing for recovered bounty. See, e.g., Dewey v. United States, 178 U.S. 510 (1900), which I summarized here on May 28.

[Commenter_XY]

captcrisis....

Wagner group? = Seems like a strange system to us these days

They seem to be modern-day privateers. Legally, are they the same as privateers as this Court in 1800 understood the term?

I have two now words to look up: seriatim, prolixity.
(You must be friends with Judge Selya in First Circuit, heh heh)

[Syd Henderson]

They had a lot fewer cases in those days so had extra time on their hands, Of course, we do have cases sometimes with four or five different opinions.

I don’t think the section on “letters of marque and reprisal” has ever been amended, so Congress could still issue them.

[SRG2]

Congress still has that constitutional power, but IIRC owing to international treaty forbidding letters of marque and reprisal, any American ship's crew operating under a grant of such a letter could be seized and prosecuted by other nations for piracy even though the US is not a signatory to treaties abolishing letters.

[Frank Drackman]

Be sure to look up seriatim and prolixity in seriatim

[Commenter_XY]

one after another; and overly wordy = definitions 🙂

[Dan Schiavetta]

My favorite character in the novel "Catch-22" is Ex-Pfc. Wintergreen, who calls generals up from his cubicle in the mailroom at Allied headquarters in Rome and then hangs up without identifying himself. One general has high regard for this mysterious oracle and asks him to comment on draft orders. Wintergreen says, "It's too prolix", and the general revises it, and W. says again, "it's still to prolix", etc. The general clearly doesn't know what prolix means but is afraid to admit it.

[Commenter_XY]

I run into that at work a lot = don't know, afraid to admit it

[The Margrave of Azilia]

[I linked to an article which isn't as comprehensive as I remember]

[Noscitur a sociis]

(Making the captain and his crew privateers as well?)

Naval personnel were traditionally entitled to a bounty (called prize money) based on the value of the ships and cargo they captured. The U.S. Navy last paid out prizes during the Spanish American War.

[Dilan Esper]

Don't give the "who is an enemy?" holding short shrift. It has enormous implications for such things as what constitutes treason.

[Dan Schiavetta]

today's movie review: Rain Man, 1988

Everyone talks about Dustin Hoffman's performance as the autistic older brother Raymond ("Rain-man"). I'm not particularly impressed by it. Unless you know someone who is deep into autism, we don't know whether Hoffman is being realistic or not. The character lives in his own world (pretty much) and so Hoffoman's acting sets its own rules. Seems like an easy assignment.

The real acting in this movie is by Tom Hanks as the younger brother Charlie, and Hoffman was wrong not to mention him in his Oscar speech (compare that with F. Murray Abraham, winning for Amadeus, saying that his co-star Tom Hulce should be standing next to him). It's the Charlie character who develops in the course of the film.

Charlie's transformation begins when he realizes that his "imaginary" childhood friend was a real person. Most of us know that strange feeling of revelation, when what we thought was a childhood dream turns out to have been a real event. Personally I can think of two examples: Carnival of Souls, which I saw as a child -- I thought scenes from it were a dream I had, until in my 30's to my great surprise I saw it on TV again. Also, recently the concert band I'm in played "The Engulfed Cathedral" by Debussy. Engulfed cathedral? Wasn't there a freak low tide off the coast of France, a "tide of the century", which revealed submerged churches, etc., miles offshore? And didn't I report on that in "current events" in fourth grade? I couldn't find any reference to it, despite an internet search, so I thought it was a dream. Then, serendipitously, I found it -- it really did happen, on May 29, 1967.

Neither discovery was as important as Charlie's, of course, and we see him gradually turn from a self-centered jerk (there are hints as to how he got that way -- his father was the same) to someone who is worthy of the affections of his girlfriend, played by the gorgeous Valeria Golino. This kind of thing used to piss me off -- why do beautiful women get attracted to jerks? (Joe Jackson did a good song about that, in 1979.) Particularly when they say they are looking for Mr. Sensitive-and-Mature. An extreme example of this is Daryl Hannah's attraction to Mickey Rourke in The Pope of Greenwich Village.

That's probably why, starting about when I was 22, I began to get involved with older women, sometimes a great deal older (as in, I was 24 and she was 48). The sex was better, and I enjoyed being the "pretty boy", the youngest person in the room (I suppose I felt more like an "adult", hanging out with these older folks), but mostly it's because women that age are past the game playing. They know what they want. None of this "If you really loved me, I wouldn't have to explain!" bullsh*t.

Back to the movie -- there are many fine things about it, mostly having to do with Charlie trying to make sense of Raymond. Having traveled by car along the same route, I recognized the reference to Tucumcari, N.M. (billboard: "3000 motel rooms!"). The initial scenes with Ralph Seymour as Charlie's harassed assistant are well done. Raymond's account of his being taken away from Charlie in 1965 is touching, because Hoffman's reading of the lines is so flat. The early voyage scene with the wind farm and "Aiko Aiko" is arresting. And I like how the country doctor is portrayed as intelligent and well-informed. It's he who recognizes that Raymond is autistic and explains to Charlie (and to the audience) what that's all about.

Raymond's abilities of memory and calculation are present in all of us, of course. Why are we so smart? It doesn't seem to be evolutionarily necessary. A topic for another post.

[Mr. Bumble]

Did you stay up late watching porn?
Charlie was Tom Cruise.

[Mr. Bumble]

By the way, the real star of the movie was the 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible.
https://static0.hotcarsimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Rain-Mans-1049-Buick-Roadmaster-via-Drive-My.jpg

[loki13]

Just wanted to say that the only good thing about the posts from This Guy are your movie reviews.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks!

[Dan Schiavetta]

Meant to say Tom Cruise, folks!

This is one of those mornings (unusual these days) when I have to physically be in court and I dashed this post off too quickly.

[apedad]

Your Honor,

I'd like to file a complaint of incompetent counsel.

My attorney apparently has prioritized his private blogging over competently pleading my case before you (and apparently not doing well on that either!).

🙂

[Dan Schiavetta]

All I have to do is show up. I can even get away with a Rain Man impersonation (though that might confuse the judge).

[Frank Drackman]

Well here's your problem "Captain"
Dustin Hoffman's character wasn't Autistic, but a "Savant" (we don't use that prejudiced "I-word" anymore) Geniuses like me who can tell you what day of the week July 4, 1776 was (Thursday) and don't get smart with Julian/Gregorian, How many bones in the human body (206 but depends on if you're counting the auditory ossicles (Malleus, Incus, Stapes) and the various sesamoid bones of the foot.
Frank "Rainman" Drackman

[The Margrave of Azilia]

“(as in, I was 24 and she was 48)”

Benjamin Franklin sings the praises of cougars:

https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/eros/praise-older-women

(By today's standards Franklin is reactionary, because he's against debauching virgins)

[Magister]

I have recently been watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix on the recommendation of a friend. Autistic law savant in Korea with various personal drama. Much less cringy than I feared it would be.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Details on those churches?
Are you sure that they weren't drowned towns revealed when drought dropped water levels in the reservoir?

A mile offshore I can believe as there are places where they have 20 foot tides, but for it to have dropped another 10 or so below that, I'd want to see why. I'd also be damn careful about going out there because the tide comes in faster than you can run.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Might have been just ruins.

Odd — looking for the news clip of it now, I again can’t find it.

As I recall it was a freak confluence of several factors (not the drawback from a tsunami, fortunately). 10 miles or more were uncovered, and some wrecks from D-Day, and lots of kids exploring. It had been predicted ahead of time.

[Syd Henderson]

I suspect Hoffman studied autistic people before he did the part. Temple Grandin is probably the best known autistic person and she has written or cowritten several books on the subject She's quite different from Raymond but not all autistics are the same, being people.

[wolfefan]

I appreciate the shout-out to Joe Jackson! I've always enjoyed him. "It's Different For Girls" is one of my all-time faves...

[Frank Drackman]

Shoeless Joe Jackson, Blacksox 2019, .356 Lifetime Average, Banned for life in 1920, 15 minutes to Judge Wapner…

Frank “Very Good Driver” Drackman

[Mr. Bumble]

Only "very good"? Not excellent?