Today in Supreme Court History: February 9, 1937

2/9/1937: NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. argued.

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

United States v. Lane Motor Co., 344 U.S. 630 (decided February 9, 1953): truck used solely to commute to illegal distillery is not “property intended for use in violating alcohol tax laws” and hence can’t be seized and forfeited by the IRS

Musser v. Utah, 333 U.S. 95 (decided February 9, 1948): Utah statute prohibited conduct “injurious to public morals”. Appeal from conviction for counseling people to enter into polygamous relationships (this is Utah). The Court notes that the statute is vague but in context of other Utah statutes refers matter back to Utah Supreme Court. Dissent by Rutledge notes First Amendment concerns. The Utah Supreme Court agreed that it was vague under the Fourteenth Amendment and vacated the conviction, 118 Utah 537. But! the defendant, Joseph White Musser, was an out-and-out polygamist who published a magazine called “Truth”. Shown the magazine, Rulon Jeffs joined the cult. At age 85 he coerced Rebecca Wall, age 19, to be his 19th wife. She eventually broke free and publicized her plight. She married Jeffs’s grandson Ben Musser, who one assumes was related somehow to the defendant in this case; their family tree was more like a suffocating tangle of mangroves.

CBS, Inc. v. Davis, 510 U.S. 1315 (decided February 9, 1994): Meat packing employee agreed to wear hidden camera. CBS was about to broadcast an exposé. Alleging trespass and breach of duty by employee, company (Federal Beef Processors) sued to stop broadcast. The Court here dissolves injunction against broadcast, citing First Amendment and previous law on prior restraint. (The exposé, a 2-minute segment of the show “48 Hours”, aired on April 21, 1994. Not known if it included an interview with Nathan Thurm, Federal Beef’s attorney.)

Kwong Hai Chew v. Colding, 344 U.S. 590 (decided February 9, 1953): can’t deny without a hearing re-entry of permanent resident alien member of United States merchant sailing on United States registered vessel; resident aliens are entitled to due process (not shown why they wanted to exclude him; one has to go to the District Court opinion which says only that it was on the basis of “information of a confidential nature”; however years later documents obtained via FOIA show that he was active in Chinese politics and (impermissibly?) critical of our ally Taiwan, see https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=462500; they also show that this litigation dragged on to 1967 when he was finally naturalized)

Lutwak v. United States, 344 U.S. 604 (decided February 9, 1953): conviction for conspiracy to misuse War Brides Act (defendants arranged veterans to get married in Paris just so that wives could enter the U.S.) upheld; last date of conspiracy was date last bride entered the U.S. and later declaration against co-conspirators improperly admitted was harmless error (“this record fairly shrieks the guilt of the parties . . . a defendant is entitled to a fair trial but not a perfect one”)

[Dilan Esper]

Re Musser-- fundamentalist mormonism is really bad, and I remember that when the YFZ ranch in Texas was raided, there were a lot of people who attacked it as some sort of big assault on civil liberties. Eventually Warren Jeffs, the current sect leader, was convicted for audiotaping himself having sex with a 12 year old.

The reality is that if anything we don't do enough to protect children in these organizations. They are rife with abuse.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Support for gay marriage gradually won over because gay people "came out" and we saw that they were friends of ours, family members, in loving, long-term relationships that did not seem in the least dysfunctional.

"The proof is in the pudding."

Which is why support for legalizing polygamy has not won over.

[Drewski]

The phrase is, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating," which does not seem entirely applicable to the issues at hand, at least for 9/10 of the population. What on earth did you think "the proof is in the pudding," was supposed to mean? Like, just reach into a big bowl of pudding and you'll be convinced?

I mean, I agree with you, but maybe don't lean too hard on half-remembered aphorisms.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

.

The reality is that if anything we don’t do enough to protect children in these organizations.

Conservative clingers object to oversight of religious kooks. Fortunately, superstition is a rapidly diminishing force in modern America and the clingers are diminishing in number and influence.

[David Nieporent]

critical of our ally Taiwan, see

To be clear, you mean China. This was only a few years after the KMT fled to Taiwan, and we still treated them as China.

[wolfefan]

+1 for deep SCTV cut.

[Dilan Esper]

+2

[Dan Schiavetta]

Actually it was on SNL.

He was like "defensive" to the 100th power.

[ReaderY]

Is Mr. Musser his own ex-grandpa-in-law?

[Paladin_44]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rALCtcMoMh8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_My_Own_Grandpa

[Dan Schiavetta]

Ray Stevens, a gift to the human race.

(Also done very well by Uncle Floyd, if you were watching local TV in the New York/New Jersey area.)

[Drewski]

Yeah, although "Ahab the Arab" doesn't play so well anymore, which is somewhat balanced by the fact that "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex" still makes evangelicals uncomfortable.