Today in Supreme Court History: August 20, 1866

8/20/1866: President Andrew Johnson proclaims an "end to insurrection in the United States."

President Andrew Johnson

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Metropolitan Co. Board of Education v. Kelley, 453 U.S. 1306 (decided August 20, 1981): Stevens refuses to vacate stay of desegregation order; court that granted stay had greater familiarity with the case, and it would cause confusion if order (affecting 30 schools) went into effect and was later modified by the Sixth Circuit

Rosado v. Wyman, 396 U.S. 1213 (decided August 20, 1969): in suit by welfare recipients challenging new statute which would remove the “floor” of benefit amounts, Harlan refers application to stay enforcement to full Court; the Court eventually ruled in favor of welfare recipients, 397 U.S. 397, 1970

[Mr. Bumble]

8/20/1866: President Andrew Johnson proclaims an "end to insurrection in the United States."
What a difference 155 years make. Form a 4 year insurrection to a 4 hour "insurrection".

[Frank Drackman]

and from one with millions of guns to one with no guns, except for the Yankee cop

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

one with no guns

People were convicted for bringing guns to the Capitol on Jan. 6; in the reality-free zone that is the Volokh Conspiracy, however, who cares about evidence and facts?

[Mr. Bumble]

You mean FBI agents were caught and charged?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

The reports of the convictions are easily found.

It is fitting that defenders of the insurrection are fans of a blog operated by a conservative who thinks disgraced, un-American, discredited, indicted, disbarment-facing John Eastman is just dreamy.

[Frank Drackman]

the "Reverend" Sandusky appears to have taken as many hits to the Noggin as he gave to his Victims Posterior's

[mike petrik]

Yes, several!!

[Dr. Ed 2]

He was not a Yankee — as a Yankee, I’m particular about the line of demarcation, and it’s debatable if Connecticut is north of it. New York is NOT!!!!

As a general rule, think First Circuit...

[Magister]

The meaning of Yankee depends on context. It can mean people from the US in general; or people who fought against the Confederacy (and there was a Confederate battle flag carried at the January 6th insurrection); or people from the northern United States; or members of the New York baseball team. In some contexts, it's New Englanders, which would include Connecticut. Your demarcation is unusual, but I admire the inclusivity of Puerto Ricans (First Circuit) as Yankees.

[Frank Drackman]

Always loved in Italy when loser (remember the Heroin Addict on "The Sopranos" who hooked up the real Italian Hit Squad guys with guns?) Italian guys would call Marines from Alabama "Yankees" "Hey Yankee Warmonger! Why don't you go home??!!"
"Umm, because we're on orders, and enjoy fucking your women, (and seeing you driven before us)"

Frank "Don't call me Yankee"

[Neugierige]

The Amish would like to contribute a meaning...

[Magister]

The Amish can post it under their own accounts on their own computers, tablets or smart phones.

[Neugierige]

We're all Yankees at Volokh.

[Dr. Ed 2]

And 16 months after Lee surrendered...
https://www.history.com/news/why-the-civil-war-actually-ended-16-months-after-lee-surrendered

[Magister]

Despite Blackman's quotation marks, it does not appear that Johnson's proclamation contains the phrase "an end to insurrection in the United States" but rather declares an end to the specific insurrection in various states. Part of its purpose was to end the effect of some previous proclamations, such as suspending habeas corpus in certain states.

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-157-declaring-that-peace-order-tranquillity-and-civil-authority-now-exists

[SRG2]

Incompetence is not a defence.

[Frank Drackman]

You better hope Parkinsonian Joe has a better slogan than that. Either Vivisection Ram-a-swami or Robert Francis would wipe the floor with Joe's demented ass, good thing for him he won't be on the ballot.

[Mr. Bumble]

Maybe he meant to say incontinence ...

[SRG2]

Nope. It was in response to the insurrection comments, where it seems that the pro-J6 posters here seem to think that because the rioters were incompetent therefore it wasn't really an attempted insurrection.

[BravoCharlieDelta]

So you think it's more likely that 1000s of people raided the White House with intent to violently overthrow the government but were too stupid to bring any weapons,

As opposed to the insurrection narrative being oversold for political advantage?

You believe the former is more likely than the latter?

[Michael P]

The attempted White House insurrection was late May 2020. The riot on January 20, 2017 was at the Capitol.

[not guilty]

To what events in late May 2020 and on January 20, 2017 do you refer? Specifically, what conduct, and by whom, constituted an "attempted White House insurrection" and a "riot," respectively, on the dates you cite? Please show your work.

[Michael P]

There is abundant media coverage of the attempted insurrection at the White House, for example https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/01/trump-took-shelter-in-a-white-house-bunker-as-protests-raged.html

As for the January 6th rioting, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56004916

You’re really living down to your precedents here.

[Jason Cavanaugh]

It says something about a person when their intellectual dishonesty reaches a point that not even a dictionary can help correct.

You're nothing but a more pathetic, less well-known version of Tucker Carlson. Just as much of a fucking liar though.

[SRG2]

The rioters invaded the Capitol with the intention of disrupting the counting of the electoral votes and hence making it difficult if not impossible to have Biden officially confirmed as the new elected president. I don't know whether in the days before they assembled that was their intention, and I also doubt that much organisation went into thinking along those lines - it was a matter of a mob getting swept up by the idea that they could affect the outcome. Now we know that there were people who had cached weapons, and we know for absolute certainty because it's on the fucking video that people used things like poles, erc as ad hoc weapons once they were at the Capitol, so the claim that they were unarmed is a flat-out lie, hence expected from your ilk.

All this goes to mitigation, not defence. Duh.

[David Nieporent]

The rioters invaded the Capitol with the intention of disrupting the counting of the electoral votes and hence making it difficult if not impossible to have Biden officially confirmed as the new elected president.

"Disrupting" is an inadequate word. When kids are talking in class while the teacher is trying to teach, that's "disrupting" class. When a kid tries to kill the teacher, "disrupting" no longer fits. Their goal wasn't to "disrupt" the counting of electoral votes; it was to stop it completely, and force Congress to award the presidency to Trump.

[Michael P]

Some totalitarian commenters here seem to think that empty words in a blog comment prove that January 6, 2021 was an attempted insurrection. Let's compare it to events from the year before that are not considered insurrections:

Number of blocks inside "Autonomous Zone": Zero (vs four for CHAZ/CHOP, and more in later 2020 purported "autonomous zones")
Duration of "Occupied Protest" in weeks: Zero (vs three for CHAZ/CHOP)
Murders during the protest: Zero* (vs two for CHAZ/CHOP)
Number of government officials who forsook their duties by endorsing the protest: Zero (vs multiple)
Number of undercover agents, agents provocateurs, and similar government actors employed to foment discord during the protest: State secret (vs zero)

*- Number legally charged; when a Capitol Police officer fatally shot into a crowd, it was deemed a justified homicide.

[SRG2]

Some totalitarian commenters here seem to think that empty words in a blog comment prove that January 6, 2021 was an attempted insurrection

And other commenters, not totalitarian, nor scumbag craven authoritarian types who place Trump above the Constitution, capable of making up their own minds without needing to be told what - or eve, if - to think, look at what actually went down and conclude that it was a badly executed attempt at disrupting the count.

You would no doubt think that Cesar Sayoc - whose name should never be forgotten - should have been acquitted as he was so incompetent.

[Michael P]

No surprise that you totally avoid debate on the substance and retreat into name-calling and whataboutism.

Speaking of Cesar Sayoc, though, why is the Biden administration too incompetent to track down the J6 pipe bomber? Was that the backup Reichstag Fire?

[Mr. Bumble]

Christopher Wray and the FBI are engaging OJ to help with the search for the "bomber".

[David Nieporent]

Are you familiar with how government works? What does "the Biden administration" have to do with anything? Presidents do not go around sleuthing for clues to catch criminals.

[SRG2]

Irony is that you accuse me of whataboutism in responding to a whingepost of yours that is one large whataboutism. And you’re not even right in suggesting that it’s whataboutism. The point of the Sayoc example was that he was utterly incompetent yet no-one at the time suggested that he be acquitted because of that incompetence, not that someone else did it too.

[Dan Schiavetta]

today’s movie review: Emmanuelle, 1974

Not hardcore but a tastefully done French film, based on a novella (which I read) about the wife of a French diplomat in Indochina whose sexuality was “awakened” via orgies, etc. French films tend to be too “artsy” for me, too satisfied with themselves, but this one was different, though maybe my judgment was clouded by my hormones. Made a star out of the stunning Sylvia Kristel who made three sequels before the role was handed off to another actress. The novel was supposedly written by Marayat Andriane (the prostitute in The Sand Pebbles) but actually was by her husband.

Whether there really was an orgy culture in what used to be the French Empire, I don’t know. There are stories but mostly it seemed like it was possible only by paying prostitutes to be part of the “orgy”. Similarly I’m skeptical of whether there was much of an orgy culture in the U.S. I certainly didn’t hear of any when I was a young adult. There was a well-publicized place called “Plato’s Retreat” in New York where supposedly orgies happened. A friend of mine went with her date once; she said the admission was $80 (!!! in those days) and it was mostly a restaurant with a “room” people could go to. The room was empty.

It was always a fantasy for a young man to be in bed with two women. I kinda got close to it once but couldn’t figure out how to bring the topic up. Another time a girlfriend suggested one with my housemate. It would have been all wrong (my housemate and I were just friends) and the girlfriend was bad news anyway; we split up soon after. Nowadays the idea of an orgy doesn’t attract me. Who does what to whom? It’s supposed to be adventuresome sex but one would be preoccupied with choreography. Busby Berkeley would be a better guide here than Alex Comfort.

Back to the film . . . the subtext is that only rich people get to do these things. Emmanuelle doesn’t have to work; she just sits around on her husband’s income. In fact she’s lazy. She doesn’t venture out; rather, she’s approached. As Billy Joel put it in another context: “All you need is looks and a whole lot of money.” She has a teenage friend who is the spoiled child of a businessman, and there is a striking scene when she visits, casually takes off her halter top, walks around in just her shorts, then sits in a gondola chair in front of Emmanuelle and masturbates to a photo of Paul Newman, as if she were checking her nails. Kristel had acting chops and the astounded look on her face is understated but effective.

The only non-rich people are the (Asian) sex workers whose story is untold. Another striking scene is in a “club” where a nude girl upends herself onstage and smokes a cigarette through her vagina. She is a real smokestack, puffing smoke up to the ceiling. (Remember that saying, “Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray?”) Later I thought: How did she learn to do that? Did someone teach her? Was it in some kind of “master class” with other girls? To what extent was she revolted by having to learn that? Did she get addicted to nicotine? And did her parents know about any of this?

[Frank Drackman]

I get it, you're into the Porn (and Dark Meat) is it too much for a review of "Old Yeller" (What "Conspirator" didn't cry when Old Yeller got Shot??, I mean besides the Reverend Sandusky and Queen Penis? You know you did) or "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"?? (Joan Fontaine with a tasty slice of Barbara Eden, hey now!)
Or if you absolutely have to have a Sexual Angle what about "Boeing Boeing" (Paramount 1965)
"Bernard Lawrence is an American journalist stationed in Paris. A playboy, he has devised an ingenious system for juggling three girlfriends: he dates flight attendants who are assigned to international routes on non-intersecting flight schedules so that only one is in the country at any given time"

Surprised this hasn't been remade, oh wait, I'm not (surprised) it'd have to be a Transexual Homo to have a chance.

Frank

[Mr. Bumble]

Maybe capt anecdote should do a film of his sexual exploits. Never fails to include one of his wet dreams in his "reviews".

[BravoCharlieDelta]

I don't think capt is into reviewing Shorts.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

You seem to be an avid reader of them.

[Mr. Bumble]

Avid reader of what? I read or scan almost all comments (except for Lanthrop) and don't mute anyone. When the idea was put forward, I encouraged cc to go for the reviews to fill in the Summer doldrums of SC actions. However, I find his reviews of crappy porn films and his personal anecdotes to be worthy of criticism and mockery.
Don't worry about me hurting his feelings, he has me muted.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

“Nowadays the idea of an orgy doesn’t attract me. Who does what to whom?”

And think of how many thank-you notes you’d have to write afterward. (/old joke)

I shouldn’t be encouraging you, but look up "Music from Ancient Rome part I" (and II and III) on Youtube. That's some ancient Roman music (reconstructed by modern musicians) which I suppose was played at orgies (which reminds me – think of the catering fees!)

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks.

We don't really know what that music sounded like but their re-creation of it is interesting.

[Dr. Ed 2]

As to the American Orgies, there are the exploits of the Senators: Jack, Bobbie, & Teddy Kennedy.

Teddy's most infamous for the waitress sandwich with Chris Dodds although that resturaunt had a room upstairs that Teddy used, and I'm still struck by the "woman walking naked into the sea, to never be seen again" in Florida.

[grb]

More pathetic than usual, Ed. I'd match your Kennedys with Dennis Hastert. Then we'd alternate between tawdy affairs and sordid scandals - Republican followed by Democrat - until well-nigh the crack of doom. And what would be the point of that? (your masturbatory Kennedy fantasies notwithstanding).

[CJColucci]

Jealousy that the Democratic sex was usually better?

[Mr. Bumble]

Democratic sex?
Everybody gets fucked?

[Frank Drackman]

Well I'd rather have fucked Jackie Kennedy than Mamie Eisenhower

[Mr. Bumble]

...and Lady Bird, Roslyn, Hillary, Michelle, Dr. Jill ???

[SRG2]

I never "got" Sylvie Kristel. To my eyes she was just skinny and plain.

[grb]

captcrisis : “today’s movie review: Emmanuelle, 1974”

I saw Emmanuelle back in the late 70s and recall little of it. But it’s an interesting challenge to name a really good sex scene in a film. It can be either realistic or stylized, though the second kind is much more common. But it has to be steamy and (at least) marginally human. Some off the top of my head.

Out of Sight : There’s a beautiful scene between Clooney & Lopex, though it’s mostly the rituals of two strangers about to go to bed. This is shown in a series of scrambled jump cuts without any character dialog. The actual filmmaking itself is so warm and seductive it carries most the load. Soderbergh said he lifted the scene from an earlier movie with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland.

History of Violence : A bit more problematic! Maria Bello is furious upon learning her mild-mannered husband, Viggo Mortensen, was a brutally violent gangster in an earlier lifer. He follows her in despair up the stairs and a grab is followed by a tussle which then becomes something of a rape, though Bello is soon an obvious participant. Their coupling is quick, passionate and violent (as per the movie theme). Although she-actually-wants-it is an ugly and toxic meme, this scene works. It is full of raw human emotions: Despair, anger, longing and need. Notably, an earlier sex scene was sweet & wholesome, but generated no heat.

The Lincoln Lawyer (movie) : Included because I watched it last night. There’s a great scene between McConaughey and Tomei that is mostly the sweaty tangle of disrobing in the bedroom. It also includes laughter, which never hurts in a sex scene.

Blue is the Warmest Color : This is an interesting contrast. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I recall something like an Eric Rohmer film of Thinky-Class French types talking, talking, talking, and eating (and I love Rohmer for’t). But massively-long sex scenes are parachuted into the movie from what seems like another planet. As I recall, it looked like the director lost control of himself behind the camera.

The Handmaiden : A great film of malignant and dysfunctional desire. The film’s two heroines have a few sex scenes and I include one for sheer innovation’s sake. As one woman lowers her head between the legs of the other, the director cuts to what can best be described as a vagina-cam looking back up. I’ve never seen that trick before or since…..

[Mr. Bumble]

What hath the capt wrought?

[Dan Schiavetta]

grb,

Thanks.

My post about Emmanuelle was about class, race and imperialism, but if you insist on talking about sex . . .

—the scene on the train between Tom Cruise and Rebecca de Mornay in Risky Business

—the bathtub scene between Robin Williams and Maria Conchita Alonso in Moscow on the Hudson

[grb]

Alas, my thoughts turn to sex much more frequently than class, race and imperialism....

[Dan Schiavetta]

Mine too, though at my age it's mostly oral sex (i.e., talking about it).

[Syd Henderson]

That bathtub scene is one of the sexiest I have ever seen, Very romantic too.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Yes. Miss Alonso's nipples also rose to the occasion!

[SRG2]

For realism, the sex scene between Ellen Barkin and Dennis Quaid in "Big Easy" - all hot and steamy before Ellen Barkin's character admits she's just not good at sex.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Also the oral sex scene between Kris Kristofferson and Sarah Miles in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. It was so realistic that his wife Rita Coolidge was not amused.

[Drewski]

What, Josh couldn't find a birthday or wedding on this date? This is less "Supreme Court history" than usual, which is saying something.

[jdoeford]

It's a B+ troll.

[Magister]

He posted the same thing for this date in 2020, so it would be some kind of precognitive trolling.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

This is what passes for scholarship, South Texas-, Volokh Conspiracy-, and Federalist Society-style.

[Frank Drackman]

You heard it "Conspirators"
Coach Sandusky wants you to "Drop and give him 40!"
Ironically, the State of Pennsylvania gave Coach Sandusky "40"
at https://www.cor.pa.gov/Facilities/StatePrisons/Pages/Greene.aspx

[John F. Carr]

Next month will be 85 years since the Prime Minister proclaimed "peace for our time".

[The Margrave of Azilia]

According to this,

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Peace_in_Our_Time

"peace in our time" was what Anglicans prayed for, per the Book of Common Prayer. Chamberlain may have had that in mind when he said "peace *for* our time."

[Mr. Bumble]

...and in three months, 105 years since the end of the war to end war.

[SRG2]

"The Great War, as we used to call it. Before we knew enough to number them." (Three days of the Condor)

[Mr. Bumble]

...and a mere 21 years for the rematch to occur. Would their be anyone left to number the next one?

[Magister]

In the annals of ill-fated presidential proclamations, we have one Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2017 at the Capitol saying "Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power", which did not hold for even four full years. He did deliver American carnage, though.

[Michael P]

Thanks to leftist “OccupyJ20” types, it didn’t hold for even four hours.

[Magister]

Protests on inauguration days are a long tradition; the 1969 protest at Nixon's inauguration was much worse than 2021, and he won election rather convincingly despite George Wallace. The peaceful transfer of power is between the current administration and the new president, and not about protesters.

[John F. Carr]

Also from that speech according to the White House archives:

"The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action."

"We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready ... to free the Earth from the miseries of disease"

[SRG2]

A classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmwmuPTa0To

[Sidney r finkel]

This just in!

After a review of the Jan. 6th events Andrew Johnson has taken his "end of insurrection" message off of the internet. and offered a full retraction.

[Mr. Bumble]

Is there nothing that dead Democrats can't do?

[Magister]

Is there anything good that living Republicans can do?

[Mr. Bumble]

Sure, but I didn't say anything about good or bad.

[Magister]

In fairness, his proclamation was good for over 150 years, which is better than many Supreme Court decisions.

[Mr. Bumble]

Given the usual lack of new posts on Sunday, maybe EV should change open thread Monday to Sunday.

[BrotherMovesOn]

Maybe you should get a life.

[mydisplayname]

As noted by Johnson, Lincoln’s definition of an insurrection involved “combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals by law.” In addition, Lincoln found a duty to _declare_ an insurrection and to order its constituents to retreat: “And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date.” [Lincoln, President Abraham. Proclamation 80. (April 15, 1861)]

At what time(s) since 15-Apr-1861 has the definition of insurrection been modified by Presidential Proclamation, duly enacted and Presidentially-signed statute, or otherwise? Is an insurrection ultimately whatever the then-current President says it is?

[Mr. Bumble]

There is no statute or even a definition in existing law.

[Neugierige]

A court addressing the issue would think for itself.

The fundamental difference between the executive and the judiciary is that as long as a judgement is legally valid, it carries authority. This is true even if it is based on a botched interpretation of law.

[Magister]

Nobody waited for Jefferson Davis to define the insurrection; on January 6th 2021, the only President available was the one who incited the insurrection. The insurrectionists failed, and the next President did indeed name it an insurrection.

[Frank Drackman]

when did Parkinsonian Joe "name it an insurrection"?? and if he did, when's the last time he tied his shoes unassisted?

Frank

[Mr. Bumble]

Velcro or slipons now.