Today in Supreme Court History: January 31, 2006

1/31/2006: Justice Samuel Alito takes oath.

Justice Samuel Alito

 

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R.R. Co., 382 U.S. 423 (decided January 31, 1966): Arkansas statute regulating size of train crews survives Dormant Commerce Clause attack (it in effect applied only to intrastate lines)

United States v. Shubert, 348 U.S. 222 (decided January 31, 1955): theatrical productions are “interstate commerce” subject to Sherman Act (defendant produced the shows + booked them + operated the theaters, which even defendant admitted could amount to violation)

West River Bridge Co. v. Dix, 47 U.S. 507 (decided January 31, 1848): power of eminent domain supersedes prohibition on impairing contracts (art. I, §10) (state allowed company to build bridge over river and collect tolls for 100 years; 44 years later paid it off with a lump sum and turned it into a free bridge; company didn’t like that)

Railway Express Agency v. People of the State of New York, 336 U.S. 106 (decided January 31, 1949): upholding against Equal Protection attack New York City regulation forbidding vehicles used only for advertising display (in the 1990’s you’d see trucks going around midtown advertising “gentleman’s clubs”; they looked like mobile billboards but they did have a minimum amount of cargo space inside (for the dancers?))

Kovacs v. Cooper, 336 U.S. 77 (decided January 31, 1949): on the same day, upholding for the same reason (public safety) Trenton, N.J. regulation prohibiting “loud and raucous” sound trucks

Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 126 (decided January 31, 1944): tax deductions must be construed narrowly (here, a deduction on excise taxes on tires for tax already paid on raw materials did not also apply to taxes paid on “partly processed” materials; Black parses the code sections and reviews legislative history) (I didn’t know until I read this case that cotton used to be an ingredient in tires)

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Cotton - the fabric of our lives.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Required considerable re-branding.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Better to rebrand the cotton than to brand the cotton-pickers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_branding

[Dr. Ed 2]

Cotton was used before Polyester & Nylon arrived -- they are used now, along with steel and sometimes high-density polymers.

Radial or bias is how they lay the belts, and a good tire will have several layers of both -- that's what 'ply' means.

[Krayt]

And now, cotton is no longer a fabric in our fabrics, replaced by polyester.

Here’s a hint, people. You don’t need some kind of “special wicking power”, with a trademarked name, to lie you’re doing a half assed job wicking sweat away. Cotton is the real deal.

Come on, dammit. I’ll pay the extra $3 for a shirt or socks. Walmart? Do your buyers know what cotton clothes are?

[John F. Carr]

In the event of nuclear war, wear cotton and not plastic.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Or plane crashes...

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Here's a counter hint: I've ridden bicycles and hiked and skied with wool, cotton, and polyester. I'll take polyester every single time. You can have your soak-it-up cotton and wool, I'll take wick-it-away polyester.

If you want to hike and ski with down sleeping bags which don't do diddly when wet, go ahead. I'll take progress.

[Krayt]

Enjoy! That’s the exact opposite of when I moved and my brother was soaked after half an hour of driving and I was dry as a bone.

Little smooth plastic rods suck at wicking. Cotton fibers do so straight away. This is why polyester products need asinine trademarks for technological solutions claiming they wick sweat away. Which suck.

[Estragon]

The primary concern with cotton in an outdoor context is that when wet, cotton doesn’t provide warmth, and instead can actually take away body heat. However, that effect might be desirable in certain scenarios I can think of. Wool does not have the same effect when wet. I prefer wool to synthetic for base layers because of what I’ll refer to as the stink factor.

Likewise, what you say about the bags is true—as far as it goes. However there are a lot of situations in which a down bag might be more desirable. For example anytime you are taking space (bulkiness) or weight into consideration. In closing I would just suggest that if you have managed to get your down bag inside it’s stuffsack inside your backpack so soaked that it provides no warmth… you have royally screwed up well beyond you choice of bag fill material.

In that spirit I highly recommend an outfit out of seattle called feathered friends. Excellent quality.

[Mr. Bumble]

...and of course laundering polyester and other synthetics releases non-biodegradable micro plastics into the environment.

[Estragon]

Yes, that is a valid point

[grb]

Estragon : "The primary concern with cotton in an outdoor context is that when wet, cotton doesn’t provide warmth, and instead can actually take away body heat"

Spoken like a hardcore hiker! I went wool across the board when prepping for my last backpacking trip.

[Estragon]

Yuuuup. You’re the one who did that Norway trail right?

[grb]

Sweden. The Kungsleden, above the Arctic Circle. From that, this advice: It's a mildly interesting tidbit to mention you ate reindeer stew, reindeer pasta, reindeer burgers, reindeer jerky, and reindeer-flavored cheese, but you should never say it around children at Christmas. That merited their severe reproach.

[Commenter_XY]

Reproach...how come?

What was reindeer pasta like?

[grb]

They looked up at me with reproof in their little eyes as if I'd just confessed to Bambicide on Rudolph. My favorite uncle standing (actually, great-uncle), took a hit that day. I had to let them win three or four games of chess apiece to regain standing.

On that : I explain stategy throughout the games, suggest good moves, point out the mistakes I (conveniently) just made, throw away my pieces like mad, and then guide them step-by-step to victory.

And after? They mercilessly gloat over beating me. No one said being a favorite uncle is easy.

(It definitely has a rich earthy taste. I never could get close to one, but they often passed fairly near. Some are belled by the Sámi and on one very foggy day hiking, I could hear one tantalizingly close by. Another time we ended a cold drizzly day at a stuga (or hiker's hut) and a reindeer passed two feet outside of the window. The hut was full of hikers from Poland, Germany, Belgium and France. We talked politics......

[Dan Schiavetta]

I don't know if any of this is true, but your sense of humor is after my own heart.

[Kazinski]

Never wear cotton when you are going out in snow, it will get wet stay wet and suck all the heat out of you. Especially cotton socks.

Silk and wool blend is fantastic for being more lightweight than just wool but still keeps your feet warm.

[Bob from Ohio]

Here’s a counter counter hint: Just stay home and be warm and dry, even without clothes!

[Estragon]

God, you’re a pussy

[Bob from Ohio]

Gender based insult. You must think women are weaker than men. Tsk tsk

[Estragon]

Pussies are powerful. You, on the other hand should probably just stay inside

[grb]

Estragon : "Pussies are powerful"

True. I can't understand how anyone could use the word "cunt" as an insult. To me, it's a term of veneration.....

[Dan Schiavetta]

Remember what Betty White said!

[John F. Carr]

I remember mobile billboards in the Boston area 20 years ago. I have not seen any recently.

[Dr. Ed 2]

AIM had them outside Harvard.

https://aim.org/2023/11/09/harvards-shocking-response-to-aim-mobile-billboards/

[defaultdotxbe]

(in the 1990’s you’d see trucks going around midtown advertising “gentleman’s clubs”; they looked like mobile billboards but they did have a minimum amount of cargo space inside (for the dancers?))

I've seen those trucks too around the Chicago area (although not for gentleman's clubs) I've always assumed the minimal cargo space was for storing other signs/posters so they could switch out the ad to another client.

[Kazinski]

Goodyear Arizona was founded by Goodyear in 1917 as a cotton plantation to supply cotton cord for tires.

[apedad]

Re: Kovacs v. Cooper

"Charles Kovacs was driven around Trenton, New Jersey. He played music and spoke through an amplifier that he had placed on the truck in which he was riding." (oyez)

Now we know where Jake and Elwood got the idea!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAHUNgoJQPw

[Magister]

"Raucous" would seem not to be a content neutral restriction. Would it be OK to play elevator music with the amp turned up to 11?

[SRG2]

Last time I was in Tokyo, about 20 years ago, there were trucks going around blaring support for some nationalist party. I think the locals just tuned out the noise the way New Yorkers tune out the sound of ambulances and fire engines.

[Mr. Bumble]

"Everythings Gonna Be Plastic By and By"
Shel Siverstein:
Now a little bitty termite, he come knockin',
Knockin' at my front door,
He walked right in, sat right down
Started nibblin' on the kitchen floor
He chewed on the walls and the ceilings and the halls
Lord knows he tried
But he kept a-gettin' thinner
And he never got no dinner
And finally he sat up and cried

He said, "It's plastic, good Lord, it's plastic!
I know it ain't no wood
And it can't do me no good,
Because it's plastic -- and you can't eat plastic,
Everything's gonna be plastic by and by!"

Then one afternoon in the month of June
I went down to the beach.
There were cuties and beauties in little bathin' suits
And all of them within my reach.
Then a 38-24-36 miss just happened to be passin' my way.
I said, "Please don't think I'm nervy, but you look so very curvy
Please tell me how you got that way!"
She said, "It's plastic it's only plastic,
It's pretty as can be, but you know that it ain't me,
Because they're plastic, oh yes they're plastic,
Everything's gonna be plastic by and by."

[grb]

Fair nuff, but rigid board insulation types made of synthetic plastics are frequently subjected to termite infestations. I don’t think the little beasties eat the stuff, but they burrow thru it like swiss cheese.

On the other hand, mineral wool insulation board is unaffected by moisture and the bugs don’t like it.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I thought Shel Siverstein was a kids' poet.

[Frank Drackman]

Would the Civil Wah have started if Eli Whitney hadn't invented the Cotton Gin

[grb]

Weird. A Frank comment that isn’t incoherent, loathsome, a grammatical mess, or child-level trolling. Kudos, dude!

As for your question, probably not. Most historians think slavery was in decline prior to the Gin revitalizing its economic viablity.

[Dr. Ed 2]

The Hartford Convention of 1814 was more about the War of 1812 than slavery.

There was an industrial/agrarian conflict that probably would have led to a war at some time.

[grb]

OK, kudos to you for getting me to look-up the Hartford Convention of 1814. I always welcome learning new things. That said, three points :

1. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Civil War or the reasons for secession that was its root cause.

2. You’re just downright wrong about war being inevitable because of “industrial/agrarian conflict”. That doesn’t come close to passing a common sense test. This country has always had areas heavily industrial or agarian, but we’ve only had one civil war. Hint. Hint.

3. But your mistake is easily understood. As someone who has predicted dozens upon dozens of future civil wars, no doubt you find it deceptively easy to imagine past ones that didn’t happen either.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"2. You’re just downright wrong about war being inevitable because of “industrial/agrarian conflict”. That doesn’t come close to passing a common sense test. This country has always had areas heavily industrial or agarian, but we’ve only had one civil war."

Really?
Whiskey Rebellion
Shay's Rebellion
Hartford Convention
Compromise of 1820
Bonus Riot
Civil Rights fight

We've come really close quite a few times.

[grb]

1. As a person who qualified Expert on the M203 grenade launcher, I can testify close counts in grenades. I wouldn't have rated so highly otherwise. But beyond grenades (and maybe horseshoes) – not so much.

2. And none of your examples were really that close anyway.

[defaultdotxbe]

I don't think the industrial/agrarian conflict would have gotten to the point of civil war without slavery to subsidize and deepen the reliance on a purely agrarian economy.

If the cotton gin did indeed revitalize the economic viability of slavery it seems a fair point that the civil war may not have happened without it, because at least parts of the south would have been forced to industrialize to maintain a stable economy.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Does anyone know the screen name Justin Mohn has used at the Volokh Conspiracy?

[Mr. Bumble]

Plan on stalking or trolling?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Just wondering which of this blog's fans is Justin Mohn. It is difficult to narrow down the list of candidates.

Are you Justin Mohn?

[defaultdotxbe]

Considering that nothing in the article you posted would indicate he posts here, the only way you would know he posts here, without already knowing his username, would be if you are in fact him and are trying to divert suspicion.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Most -- if not all -- of the description of Mr. Mohn suggests he is part of the Volokh Conspiracy's carefully cultivated commentariat.

[defaultdotxbe]

You mean the same commentariat you are a part of?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I am not part of the Conspirators' carefully cultivated commentariat.

I am more the fly in the ointment, the monkey in the wrench, etc.

[defaultdotxbe]

Can't be all that carefully curated if you're still here.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Prof. Volokh banned my parody account (Artie Ray Lee Wayne Jim-Bob Kirkland) for poking fun at conservatives. He also has censored my comments repeatedly.

But I strive to comply with his censorship rules -- for example, that I refrain from using certain words (sl_ck-j_wed, p_ssy, etc.) to describe conservatives -- so my clerical account has not been banned.

Most of the curation around here involves posting partisan red meat designed to attracts bigots of all stripes (racists, xenophobes, gay-bashers, etc. etc. etc.); delusional culture war casualties; and disaffected, antisocial, spectrum-inhabiting right-wingers.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Kirkland, as usually, the BRITISH press covered the story better.
Did you notice the part about "thoughts [he] has had while stoned"?

Marijuana is not a harmless drug and that, not Trump, is likely what was behind this.