Today in Supreme Court History: July 19, 1949

7/19/1949: Justice Frank Murphy dies.

Justice Frank Murphy

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Rostker v. Goldberg, 448 U.S. 1306 (decided July 19, 1980): Does the draft (applicable to males only) discriminate? The District Court said yes and enjoined enforcement. Here, Brennan grants a stay of that order (as to males born in 1960 and 1961), noting the significant questions involved and the likelihood of cert. As it turned out, cert was granted and the Court upheld the males-only draft, with Rehnquist’s opining that males and females were not “similarly situated”, 453 U.S. 57 (1981). (For years it was obvious that a later Court would hold differently, but what about the current Court?)

Akel v. State of New York, 81 S.Ct. 25 (decided July 19, 1960): Frankfurter denies motion to fix bail in a narcotics conviction, because New York’s highest court had denied it and had not certified that a federal issue was involved. (Note his snark toward New York’s most prestigious judge: “When a judge as solicitous as is Judge Stanley H. Fuld to safeguard the interests of defendants in criminal cases denies an application for bail pending a proposed petition for certiorari to this Court on a claim of a substantial federal right, one naturally attributes some solid ground for such denial.”)

Owen v. Kennedy, 84 S.Ct. 12 (decided July 19, 1963): Black refuses to stay order requiring Mississippi officials to hand over poll tax records in federal elections under Civil Rights Act of 1960, rejecting arguments as to self-incrimination and due process (prohibition on poll taxes became part of the Constitution the next year)

Aberdeen & Rockfish R. Co. v. Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (SCRAP), 409 U.S. 1207 (decided July 19, 1972): Burger refuses to lift stay of new railroad rates which allegedly would have the effect of reducing incentives to recycle in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (he notes, “Our society and its governmental instrumentalities, having been less than alert to the needs of our environment for generations, have now taken protective steps”); railroads won on direct appeal, 412 U.S. 669 (1973)

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Justice Frank Murphy was known as a great liberal ("justice tempered with Murphy"). One Forbes article compared him to Sotomayor:

Justice Murphy was in some ways the Justice Sotomayor of his day. As his clerk John H. Pickering wrote, Justice Murphy "knew about discrimination first-hand. He experienced it growing up as an Irish-Catholic lad in a small Michigan town, and he was a lifetime foe of discrimination in all of its ugly forms." A former judge, governor of Michigan and U.S. attorney general who had gained widespread attention for his commitment to civil rights and the cause of workers, he was nominated to the Court by Franklin Roosevelt, and he was the last Catholic nominated to the Court by a Democratic president until Judge Sotomayor was nominated this year.

https://www.forbes.com/2009/08/06/sotomayor-justice-empathy-opinions-contributors-william-michael-treanor.html

He had some eloquent dissents, sympathetic sometimes when the even the liberals were not. For instance, in Cleveland v. U.S., he dissented when the "white slavery traffic act" was applied to polygamists.

Unfortunately, he died after a relatively short tenure. He is often linked to Wiley Rutledge, who Stevens clerked for, who also had a short tenure.

There were also rumors that Murphy was gay.

[Michael P]

OT, but RIP to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee; condolences to her family and friends. Cancer sucks, and pancreatic cancer is worse than most.