Today in Supreme Court History: September 25, 1981

9/25/1981: Justice Sandra Day O'Connor takes the oath.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Tennant v. Jefferson County Comm’n, 567 U.S. 758 (decided September 25, 2012): Full Court, reversing District Court, approves of West Virginia Legislature’s reapportionment of its three Congressional seats, one of eight competing plans. This short decision goes through how the Court decides whether a redistricting comports with “one person, one vote”: population differential (not dispositive; one of the rejected plans had a differential of only one person between the smallest and largest districts); whether incumbents would be forced into the same district; whether counties or cities would remain whole, etc. The approved plan had a differential of only 0.79% between the smallest and largest districts, which the Court admitted in these days of computerized analysis might be a “large” deviation, but o.k. here. (Sounds pretty small to me!)

[Dan Schiavetta]

today's movie review: Lilies of the Field, 1963

For years Sidney Poitier was Hollywood's only black leading man. Which is appropriate because this good-natured and uplifting film is about people out of place.

Poitier plays a jack-of-all-trades who gets roped into building a church in the Arizona desert. He's out of place with the East German nuns who live there. The nuns themselves, refugees from Nazism and then Communism, are out of place. Though they do recognize that having a church to go to is important to the local Mexican-Americans. Catholicism itself was out of place there. The locals are Catholics because their ancestors were forced to convert by Spanish conquerors.

Local folks are enlisted to help. The Stanley Adams character, a local businessman and an atheist -- "I only believe in what I see" -- unexpectedly shows up to help too, for reasons he can't quite explain. He considers himself out of place but strangely he is not.

The nuns don't speak English, except for their Mother Superior (played by Lilia Skala), and the basic plot of the movie is the battle of wills between Poitier and Skala, with her insisting that he do the work and him always threatening to leave. The nuns react with childish glee when he brings them a string of lollipops. And with horror when he compares their demanding boss to Hitler. The nuns have actual experience with Hitler and Poitier realizes he's gone too far. We realize then just how strong a person the Skala character is, having led her group through so much. What she wants, she gets.

Finally, the title of the movie is out of place. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these." Matthew 6:28 - 29. This movie is about toil. It's the only way to get things done. In fact, here, toil is almost the whole point. It brings everyone together, people who were out of place.

[Syd Henderson]

One of those films that is uplifting and in its own way great. Poitier deserved his Oscar and Skala her nomination. It's also about him (eventually) wanting to create something long-lasting from his own toil.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks, a good point.

[Commenter_XY]

Last comment on the Palestinian Writes hatefest Festival in Philly. Pouring rain all weekend. Plenty of rain today for the closing of the hatefest. Shame on U-Penn for aiding and abetting today's anti-semites. I'm glad the attendees were cold, wet, miserable and greatly inconvenienced; but unharmed.

Personally, I hope the attendees stay wet and miserable all day today, and have delayed flights in the shithole known as Philly International Airport (it is a truly shitty airport, and baggage claim is a nightmare) this evening.

Poetic justice. Divine disapproval(?). Either works for me.

(I'll say an extra Al Chayt later this morning)

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Look, it’s supported by the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at Barnard College.

https://palestinewrites.org/supports/

Which means that an academic department devoted to the interests of non-cisheteromale persons has done its due diligence and found that this Palestinian writers’ organization is in line with gender justice. Isn’t that a good sign?

[Commenter_XY]

So I guess the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at Barnard is good with tossing gays off rooftops, and hanging trannies from cranes for the birds to eat. That is what they do in Gaza, and sometimes in 'Area A' inside Israel.

It is a crazy world.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Conscious that his status carried a responsibility, he was one of Hollywood’s most respected actors, had a stable marriage, and was active in the Civil Rights movement. As he aged he also meshed with the new generation when he was no longer the only black face.

His wide appeal to American audiences was partly (I think) because he was not really their idea of “African-American”. He was from the Bahamas and had that Islands lilt as opposed to (say) a Delta accent you would hear from a black person from Mississippi.