Today in Supreme Court History: June 10, 1916

6/10/1916: Justice Charles Evans Hughes resigns.

Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (decided June 10, 1968): allowed “stop and frisk” without warrant if suspicion of armed and involved in a crime (whence came the term “Terry stop”)

Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (decided June 10, 1996): any traffic offense (here, speeding when approached by police) is pretext for stopping car (after which police saw two bags of cocaine in front seat)

Borden v. United States, 593 U.S. 420 (decided June 10, 2021): enhanced sentence under Armed Career Criminal Act provision as to three previous armed felonies not applicable because one of the earlier convictions was based on reckless (not intentional) conduct

City of Chicago v. Morales, 527 U.S. 41 (decided June 10, 1999): Chicago ordinance prohibiting “criminal street gang members” from loitering struck down on due process grounds as too vague and an arbitrary restriction on personal liberties

Oxford Health Plans v. Sutter, 569 U.S. 564 (decided June 10, 2013): arbitrator had authority under contract to authorize class action of physicians’ claim against health plan for prompt payment; contract gave arbitrator the authority to construe the contract so “arbitrator’s construction holds, however good, bad, or ugly”

Ringhiser v. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co., 354 U.S. 901 (decided June 10, 1957): steel plates stacked next to toilet shifted during switching operation and crushed leg of engineer who was “answering call of nature”; jury should be allowed to determine whether the railroad should have known this kind of thing might happen

McKune v. Lile, 536 U.S. 24 (decided June 10, 2002): no violation of Fifth Amendment where convicted rapist was threatened with transfer to maximum security prison if he refused therapy, even though counseling was not confidential and statements could be used against him

Jenkins v. Anderson, 447 U.S. 231 (decided June 10, 1980): defendant’s silence can be used against him if the silence was pre-arrest, i.e., before Miranda warnings had to be given (here, his defense to murder was self-defense but oddly he never told police that)

Standard Stock Food Co. v. Wright, 225 U.S. 540 (decided June 10, 1912): Iowa law requiring listing of certain ingredients on containers of animal feed did not violate Dormant Commerce Clause; this was an inspection law and effect on interstate commerce was “incidental” even though the feed was shipped to Nebraska

Chicago, R.I. & P.R. Co. v. Brown, 229 U.S. 317 (decided June 10, 1913): (this accident was similar to that in Affolder, see March 13) upholding verdict for switchman whose leg was cut off by colliding railroad cars due to defective safety hook (in violation of federal statute); it was not contributory negligence for him to go in between the cars because he had to move quickly to prevent collision (this principle was played for laughs in a much less serious case, Cordas v. Peerless Transp. Co., the most garishly written opinion in history)

[Noscitur a sociis]

Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (decided June 10, 1996): any traffic offense (here, speeding when approached by police) is pretext for stopping car (after which police saw two bags of cocaine in front seat)

This seems a little misleading! I would have said something like, “any traffic offense (here, speeding when approached by police) allows stopping car, even if the traffic offense is just a pretext for another investigation.”

[ReaderY]

Just looked at Cordas v. Peerless.

Wow!

Now I know where Monty Python’s John Cleese must have gotten the general style of his character in the Cheese Shop sketch. It’s an almost identical style! If they just read the opinion out loud they could do a lot a great deal with it.

[Dan Schiavetta]

My favorite of many turns of phrase: “the fleshy tablets of sentient creation” (referring to the Ten Commandments).

[JoeFromtheBronx]

When will John Roberts resign for the good of the Court?

(Hughes was around 80. I am not saying that is why he resigned.)

The Whren summary seems garbled. To quote Oyez.com:

"The unanimous Court held that as long as officers have a reasonable cause to believe that a traffic violation occurred, they may stop any vehicle."

Critics argued it was blind to racist or other illegitimate pretext. The Court left open the possibility of an equal protection claim but realistically it is unlikely to be accepted.

[John F. Carr]

There was a guy pulled over on I-290 in Worcester for obviously pretextual reasons. I think it was failure to keep right when not passing, a law that police don't care about enforcing. Initially he convinced a judge it was racism. The legal system ultimately determined that the officer probably couldn't tell what race the driver was before deciding to make a stop.

When I become king I will decree that traffic laws must be enforced with demonstrable equality, no more looking the other way at 99.9% of violations, on penalty of being fed to the genetically modified alligators I keep in my dungeon.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

I'd say that inconsistent enforcement voids a law. If you only catch one out of a thousand people going 80, but one out of 10 going 90, then stop pretending the speed limit is 65.

(Speed cameras don't count. There's no way to dispute a still photo with a caption unless it's the wrong car. It needs a video showing you moving faster than the cars around you, for instance.)

And "enforcement" means trying; if you only solve 10% of murders, but investigate them all, that's still enforcing.

[Syd Henderson]

This is Hughes' first resignation when he was running for President. He was appointed again in 1930 and resigned a second time in 1941, for the reason you said.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Yes. The second time is my concern. When he was Chief Justice.

[CJColucci]

Winner of the Charles Evans Hughes look-alike contest.

Incidentally, he would run afoul of the newly-promulgated grooming rules for the NYPD.