Today in Supreme Court History: August 2, 1923

8/2/1923: President Calvin Coolidge's Inauguration. He would appoint Justice Harlan Fiske Stone to the Supreme Court.

President Calvin Coolidge

 

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Levy v. Parker, 396 U.S. 1204 (decided August 2, 1969): Douglas grants bail to Levy, an army doctor, convicted of Military Code provision (“disorder and neglect to the prejudice of the discipline of the armed forces”) which the Court had just observed, without deciding, might be unconstitutionally vague (O’Callahan v. Parker) (Douglas notes that Brennan had already denied bail -- so why did Douglas have jurisdiction?); Levy had publicly urged black soldiers to refuse to fight in Vietnam; suit dragged on into 1974, with the Court finally holding that the provision was not vague and superseded Levy’s First Amendment rights, 417 U.S. 733.

Barnes v. E-Systems, Inc. Group Hospital Medical & Surgical Ins. Plan, 501 U.S. 1301 (decided August 2, 1991): Scalia grants stay of Circuit Court’s striking down Texas statute as being preempted by ERISA; Scalia notes that requirement that ERISA-related suits be brought in federal courts might be in conflict with Eleventh Amendment; I don’t know what happened to this suit, but related suit resulted in denial of cert, 502 U.S. 981

Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists v. Marshall, 434 U.S. 1305 (decided August 2, 1977): Rehnquist denies stay of discovery order based on lack of jurisdiction (it’s not an appealable order); suit was by lay church employees alleging sex discrimination in pay in violation of Fair Labor Standards Act and church objected on First Amendment grounds to producing payroll records (case was settled before trial in October 1977)

[Dilan Esper]

" (Douglas notes that Brennan had already denied bail — so why did Douglas have jurisdiction?)"

Supreme Court rule 22.4.

[Frank Drackman]

Will apologies to Will Rogers, I guess Coolidge did do something while he was President

[PeteRR]

The last great POTUS.

[Dan Schiavetta]

"speak only when your words are more golden than your silence"

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

The recent attempt by some conservatives to depict Coolidge as a great president is pretty amusing. An honest appraisal of his time in office makes that view hard to sustain. But history does have its uses for current ideology, as any originalist can demonstrate.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

They are the Seventh Day Adventists and the ruling was handed down on the second day? Seems wrong.

Coolidge also elevated Judge Learned Hand (one of the best names of a judge though "Joseph Story" has a nice simplicity) to the Court of Appeals. He also nominated John Parker, later a rejected SCOTUS nominee.

When asked about Judge Learned Hand's qualifications, the famously taciturn POTUS reportedly said, "Suitable."

(I might be making the last part up.)

[hobie]

My favorite judge as well. Of course he is also the one who gave us conspiracy (which I am not a fan of) '...bound mind and hand'. Our only true celebrity judge. Speaking of, we too also have our own Harlan on the court

[ReaderY]

Justices used to decide what we now call “shadow docket” cases individually, in their capacity as Circuit Justices, fairly often. But now, Circuit Justices almost always just refer the matter to the whole Court, to the point where even having individual Circuit Justices at all seems a formality that could be dispensed with. Why not just have people apply to the whole Court to begin with?

And why the change? Is it explained by the rise of instant communications combined with slower judicial timeframes? Perhaps in older days there just wasn’t time or it would be too much effort to convene the whole court to get an answer. Or is it something else?

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Circuit justices still handle various run-of-the-mill procedural functions, including mundane cases they don’t refer to the full court.

Steve Vladeck wrote a book on the shadow docket. One change was that the Supreme Court used to go into summer recess without formally still being in session. This stopped around 1980.

Circuit justices were the only ones who could handle things without SCOTUS going back into session. So, a recent cap’ case involved Justice Marshall doing a phone poll of justices since he could not formally refer the case to the Supreme Court since it was during the summer recess.

One factor is likely that SCOTUS used to have a LOT more cases. In 1980, the Supreme Court decided 178 cases. Circuit justices logically handled more cases. SCOTUS didn’t have the same ability to handle so many shadow docket cases the same way.

The Trump Administration also asked for significantly more major cases to be stayed or taken by the Supreme Court. Vladeck notes previous presidents, of both parties, asked significantly less often.

Of course, Vladeck and people like Will Baude (who gave it that name) talk about this in more depth. But, that touches a bit.

[Dan Schiavetta]

The "shadow docket" is simply the motion calendar.

Siegel, New York Practice, "Motions in Appellate Courts":

"One does not usually associate a 'motion' with the appellate process, except perhaps the motion for leave to appeal, but there are a number of occasions when relief sought from an appellate court, sometimes incidental and sometimes final, is sought by motion."

[JoeFromtheBronx]

It has gotten more attention lately since more substantive things are being done via that route.

[John F. Carr]

The motion calendar? How dull. The dark calendar. The devil's calendar. Abandon all hope, ye who move.

[Ilya Snowman]

'He would appoint Justice Harlan Fiske Stone to the Supreme Court'.

Terrible mistake.

[Bob from Ohio]

Yup. Such a good conservative that FDR promoted him to chief justice.

[F.D. Wolf]

While Calvin Coolidge became president on August 2, 1923, upon the death of President Warren Harding, he was not inaugurated - that is, took the presidential oath of office - until the early morning hours of August 3. Harding passed away from a heart attack in Seattle, Washington, a little after 7:30 PM local time. At the time, Vice President Coolidge was visiting his family home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, a home that had neither electricity nor a telephone. A messenger was not able to get word of Harding's death to Coolidge until after midnight. Coolidge took the oath of office at 2:47 AM at the home, administered to him by his father, John Calvin Coolidge, Sr., a Vermont notary and justice of the peace, authorized by state law to administer oaths. On August 21, Coolidge would repeat the oath under Justice Adolph A. Hoehling Jr., of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia to avoid any questions of the propriety of the presidential oath being administered by a state official.

Similarly, when Vice President Chester Arthur had become president upon the death of James Garfield in 1881, he had initially been sworn in by New York Supreme Court Justice John Brady, but two days later repeated the oath under U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Morrison Waite. For President George Washington's first inauguration, the oath was administered by New York Chancellor Robert Livingston, because, of course, there were not yet any federal judicial officers.

[F.D. Wolf]

I recently read Amity Shlaes' 2013 biography of Calvin Coolidge, aptly entitled Coolidge, and recommended it highly.