The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Today in Supreme Court History: December 12, 1910
12/12/1910: Chief Justice Edward Douglass White confirmed.
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Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (decided December 12, 2000): stopped the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court (though the Court had already stayed it), citing Equal Protection violation; hard to summarize this “don’t ever cite us for this!” decision further so I won’t try (Westlaw lists 104 cases giving this case “negative treatment”, courts on all levels except the Supreme Court itself of course). Note: Maybe due to the rushed briefing this wasn’t brought out, but this decision seemed to me to overrule the Taylor v. Beckham, 1900, line of cases, which shut federal court doors to Lyndon Johnson’s opponent in the 1948 Senate race and to Richard Nixon in 1960 (Nixon, a well-read lawyer, didn’t even try because he knew it was pointless)
Mitchell v. New York, L.E. & W.R. Co., 146 U.S. 513 (decided December 12, 1892): trial court correctly directed verdict for defendant railroad where teenager who had secretly climbed on top of coal car with his friends fell to his death due to “sudden jerk” of train
Shaw v. United States, 580 U.S. 63 (decided December 12, 2016): 18 U.S.C. §1344 (bank fraud) applies to defrauding a depositor as well as a bank
Geez @ Mitchell. Shows that stories about a decline in the legal profession or society are partly just stories. There were preposterously frivolous lawsuits back then too.
In today’s Tuesday Open Thread, I was listening to NPR on my way to work. They were talking about the fight in Congress where the Republicans are demanding money for immigration reform and making it more difficult, in exchange for money for Ukraine and Israel.
They shift to an expert. “Does slowing immigration help jobs and wages?”
“No. (Insert conservative laundry list of why, including how domestic people don’t want to take certain jobs immigrants will.)” The interviewer waxed aglow he stuck it to Trump-sucking conservatives.
QED. Power brokers tell you what to believe, and you attach your lips to it like a newborn cow with hay on its still-drying ass. Swap positions? Who cares? We are after power, and useful idiots will follow. Conservatives adopt a liberal policy of Bernie Sanders and Cesar Chavez and a century of progressive thought, and progressives adopt business-friendly positions to cut wages.
“But…!”
But what? They could swap back, and probably will after Trump is gone, and you’ll continue to be dragged along by your plunger-like sucker attached to whatever flops from their mouths into the echo chamber you subscribe to.
Your first problem is listening to NPR. Your second problem is believing them.
Too bad Ukrainians will die for cheap child care!