Today in Supreme Court History: December 30, 2005

12/30/2005: Congress enacted the Detainee Treatment Act, which gave rise to Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

The Roberts Court (2006)

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Louisiana v. Hill, 141 S.Ct. 1232 (decided December 30, 2020): Hill was convicted of statutory rape and “SEX OFFENDER” was put on his driver’s license. He was convicted of scratching the words off. He won on his argument that this was “compelled speech” in violation of the First Amendment, both in the trial court and the Louisiana Supreme Court (341 So.3d 539). Here Alito denies Louisiana’s motion for a stay; its petition for cert was then denied, 142 S.Ct. 311 (2021).

Klutznick v. Carey, 449 U.S. 1068 (decided December 30, 1980): The District Court found that the Census had undercounted New York, particularly in poor and minority areas, and precluded certification of the results. Here the Court grants the Solicitor’s motion to stay that order. The Second Circuit later reversed, holding that New York’s statistical adjustment proposal would be unfair to other states, 653 F.2d 732 (the Court then denied cert).

[John F. Carr]

The Clinton administration reversed the Carter Administration's policy on the legality of statistical sampling, but lost in the Supreme Court. Department of Commerce v. House, 525 U.S. 316. The court observed that Chevron deference was not appropriate because the government changed longstanding policy without good explanation. The conservatives added that statistical sampling was probably unconstitutional.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Undocumented immigrants are not going to return census forms and are not going to answer the door when a strange official knocks. This was not an issue in 1790 when there was no such thing as being in the country illegally. It is a shortcoming that statistical sampling corrects for.

[Dan Schiavetta]

State mottoes on license plates are unconstitutional if they express a political opinion, Wooley v. Maynard, 1977 (New Hampshire's state motto, "Live Free or Die").

[defaultdotxbe]

That's probably why Indiana has 2 basic plate styles. One says "In God We Trust" and the other says nothing. If you don't specify which you want you get the one with no motto.

[David Nieporent]

The holding of Wooley is not "[political] state mottoes on license plates are unconstitutional." It's that punishing an objecting person for refusing to display such mottos is.

And it's one of the precedents that most strongly refutes the notion that states can compel Twitter (et al.) to distribute speech that Twitter doesn't want to distribute.

[Dan Schiavetta]

I would pick “In God We Trust” and then block out the first T.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

STATES RANKED BY EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

High school diploma
Indiana 31

College degree
Indiana 43

Advanced degree
Indiana 42

Most Republican
Indiana 14

Indiana is exceptionally poorly educated for a non-Confederate state — and imagine Indiana’s educational level if degrees from backwater religious schools weren’t counted.

[Dr. Ed 2]

In God We Rust? ???

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks for the correction. I was commenting on the fly.

The Wooley decision came out when I was in college and my poli sci teacher got a lot of laughs speculating on accidents that would happen if people got to put their own mottoes on license plates.

[Krayt]

What about compelling twitter to censor things politicians want censored, harrassing speech, start with the harrassing speech of our political opponents, or else we'll crush section 230, destroying your business model and costing uncountrd billions in stock valuation?

The correct answer is government should be doing none of this, but to facetiously claim twitter & co. are doing this of their own free corporate will is ludicrous. And in any other situation, you'd deny that corporate free will.

[Dr. Ed 2]

As opposed to on the bumper?

I've got to get another "Question Authority" bumper sticker...

[Dr. Ed 2]

Kirkland, you somehow are under the asinine assumption that education has an inherent value independent of anything else.

I could pull the statistics on higher education and suicide — and they do correspond — and ask questions that you can’t answer. I have five college degrees, my cousin has an 8th grade education — and he’s a millionaire. (I am not.)

Likewise, I am tired of you condemning EV for transferring from UCLA to Standford/Hoover. It’s his life, not yours, and there are a thousand different reasons why he essentially decided to make his part-time gig full-time. Maybe he decided he’d rather live in Palo Alto than LA — I would.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I congratulate UCLA and its students for their improvement and good fortune.

[Frank Drackman]

Well, Suicide is painless, it brings on many changes, and I
can take or leave it if I please.

[Dr. Ed 2]

OK, I stand corrected.

But if you broaden your definition of suicide to include things like opiate overdoses, then you start to see some differing trends:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mortality/drug_poisoning.htm

[Dr. Ed 2]

I never understood that song:

Through early morning fog I see
Visions of the things to be
The pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see

[Chorus]
That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

The game of life is hard to play
I'm gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I'll someday lay
So this is all I have to say

[Chorus]
Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

The sword of time will pierce our skin
It doesn't hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger, watch it grin

[Chorus]
Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

A brave man once requested me
To answer questions that are key
"Is it to be or not to be?"
And I replied, "Oh, why ask me?"

[Chorus]
Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please
And you can do the same thing if you please

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Sing to the tune of Freefalling

George W Bush loves Jesus

and torturing and slaughtering innocent Muslims too

[David Nieporent]

.

What about compelling twitter to censor things politicians want censored, harrassing speech, start with the harrassing speech of our political opponents, or else we’ll crush section 230, destroying your business model and costing uncountrd billions in stock valuation?

What about an imaginary thing that never happened? I dunno; what about it? I'm not big on fanfic.