Today in Supreme Court History: November 9, 1942

11/9/1942: Wickard v. Filburn decided.

The Stone Court (1941-1942)

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17 (decided November 9, 1993): Title VII claimant (“abusive work environment”) need not show that her psychological well-being was “seriously affected”; totality of circumstances but still must be “objectively” abusive (ALJ found supervisor made frequent gender insults, sexual innuendos, “You’re a woman, what do you know”, “We need a man as the rental manager”, “you’re a dumb ass woman”, suggested “we go to the Holiday Inn”, asked her to get coins from his front pocket, etc., etc.)

Wickard v. Fillburn, 317 U.S. 111 (decided November 9, 1942): Congress can regulate amount of wheat farmer grows for his own consumption because it takes away from what he might sell in interstate commerce (my Con Law professor said this case was “the final nail in the coffin” of the Restricted Commerce Clause era, but he was saying this in 1991; the coffin has since popped open)

Ex Parte U.S. Joins, 191 U.S. 93 (decided November 9, 1903): the Court has no power to annul decisions of “Citizenship Court” set up by Congress to (against the wishes of Oklahoma tribes) break up their communal land and sell to individuals; the court had already ceased to exist, having performed its only legislated function

[F.D. Wolf]

Also decided on November 9, Toolson v. New York Yankees, Inc., 346 U.S. 356 (1953).

In a relatively brief per curiam opinion, the Court re-affirmed Federal Baseball Club v. National League, 259 U.S. 200 (1922), in which a unanimous Court, per Justice Holmes, had ruled that professional baseball was not interstate commerce subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act. Justice Burton, joined by Justice Reed, dissented in Toolson, writing that whatever the realities of professional baseball or limited views of “interstate commerce” might have been in 1922, they had certainly changed by 1953.

Federal Baseball Club, which the Court consistently refused to extend to other sports leagues, is one of those rare, old cases that stands alone as precedent in a sea of unanimously contradictory case law, but due to its great age, will likely never be explicitly overturned, only eroded, by the Court and time. Baseball’s unique antitrust exemption will likely endure until, and unless, Congress takes it away.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks.

Federal Baseball Club was more definitively affirmed in Flood v. Kuhn, 1972, which I remember personally. The New York Times editorial, citing Blackmun’s flowery paean to baseball, called it “misty-eyed justice”. Flood’s challenge to the reserve clause effectively ended his career, and oddly he got no thanks from the later players who through union activity got the benefits he “went to bat” for them for.

As for Toolson, he was a pitcher stuck in the Yankees farm system, one of many talented players the Yankees buried there during their years of dominance so as to make them inaccessible to other major league clubs. He lost his case and never made it to the majors.

P.S. The present-day Yankees have also been called an evil empire, but unlike the Yankees of Toolson’s day, they are underachieving overlords. There are 30 major league teams and 16 of them have been to the World Series more recently than the Yankees.

[F.D. Wolf]

Here’s a little baseball trivia.

The Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1968 World Series in seven games, winning the deciding Game 7 by a score of 4-1. With Bob Gibson pitching, the game was scoreless going into the top of the seventh. Gibson retired the first two batters. Norm Cash singled. Then Willie Horton singled, advancing Cash to second. The next batter, Jim Northrup, hit a liner to centerfield, which should have been caught for the third out, but Curt Flood misplayed it, and the ball went over his head for a triple, allowing two runs to score. Bill Freehan would drive in Northrup, and the Tigers would end the inning with a 3-0 lead, eventually winning the game (and the Series) 4-1.

A lot of fans (and even some teammates) blamed Flood for the loss, which is why Flood wanted out of town. So, if Flood had caught that ball, or if Northrup had not it hit it to centerfield, then there probably is no Flood v. Kuhn.

[Dan Schiavetta]

!

[Frank Drackman]

Here’s the entire game broadcast (complete with Commercials, dammit, I want a Marlboro!!) (Day WS game! Busch Stadium before it got raped with Artificial Turf! Both Starting Pitchers went the distance! Pitchers hitting (or trying to, Mickey Lolich/Bob Gibson went 0/7, OTOH it was 1968 and nobody was hitting very much, Oakland led the AL with a .240 Team batting average, and you try to hit Gibby or Lolich)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tSVM_YHz9c

Frank

[Frank Drackman]

Ranks right up there with "Plessy", "Roe", and "Kelo" for dates that will live in Surpreme Court Infamy.

Frank "We sitting in here , and we in here talking about Wheat. I mean, listen: We talking about Wheat. Not Grass. Not Opium. Not Mushrooms. We talking about Wheat. Not Marriage-a-Juan-a.. We talking about Wheat, man."

[Ghost of Patrick Henry]

A date which should live in infany. The day the Constitution died.

[I Callahan]

One of the worst decisions of all time.

[Hugo S. Cunningham]

What did the farmer do with his grain? Did he feed it to animals that were sold into general commerce? Did he process it into products, eg bread, that were sold into general commerce?

[windycityattorney]

I believe he said he was going to use it to the feed the animals around on his farm. I don't know enough about the farm to answer if those animals were then to be sold off at market or used by him to feed himself and his family. Imagine if it was just a few chickens or pigs that he himself would butcher to eat.

[Krayt]

One goes into government to get in the way, until paid to get back out of the way. This isn’t keeping the trade routes open, keeping state governments from stepping on trade.

“We’d better add an Interstate Commerce Clause. We know how shitty politicians and their corrupt essences are, and this allows the federal government to stop that. That’s a good chunk of what we’re doing.”

150 years later…

“Get in the way! Stop that commerce! Ohhh look at those corporate donations role in. We keep this up, "donations" will be automatic as pure prophylactic.”

[Jason Cavanaugh]

You could just highlight the case, above, and search google yourself...

When you're done, look up Gonzales v. Raich too.

[Lasciata]

W v. F could have been reversed by NFIB v. Sibelius. That it wasn't should enshrine Roberts in the Supreme Hall of Shame.