Today in Supreme Court History: August 28, 1958

8/28/1958: Cooper v. Aaron is argued.

Comments

[Malika]

Interesting, if the 8th Circuit could have waited one day they could have dropped their decision ruling Missouri couldn't nullify federal gun control laws on the same day as this related precedent. No sense of history there!

[JoeFromtheBronx]

I see this series has been going on for some number of years (a quick check shows this entry was present in 2020).

captcrisis commented on that entry w/o adding other SCOTUS actions. That came later.

Appropriate to today's entry, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have A Dream" speech OTD in 1963. Stephen Colbert's mom was present, pregnant with him, while he gave it.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Joe,

Josh (or his robot) started posting this series shortly after he became one of the VC’ers, in 2019.

After having fun with it for a while (Josh was an easy target and there were a lot of mistakes), starting May 7, 2022 I began posting serious daily comments about things the Court actually did on that date. At the time I was sitting at the bar at Kee's Oyster House, sipping my second Martini, but I gradually got more into it. The result is a book now available on Amazon which as of last week I “finalized”. I plan to issue an updated edition every August, after each Court term ends.

I much appreciate your additions to these posts (and to my comments).

[Malika]

Awesome news!

[JoeFromtheBronx]

I appreciate it and congrats.

[Mr. Bumble]

What a slow day at the VC.
Even captcrisis is late.

[Malika]

The rabbit hole of this case produces so many fascinating, fun facts. For instance, I found out today that Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas at the time, ran against, and lost to, Bill Clinton for governor of that state in 1986. Also, that Woodrow Wilson Mann, the mayor of Little Rock at the time, reached out and asked President Eisenhower to send federal troops to enforce integration and protect the Little Rock Nine.

[Mark Regan]

You might be wondering, "Why should the Supreme Court have held oral argument on August 28?", and the answer, from Judge Wilkinson's book, appears to be that they wanted to issue a ruling by the time school started in Little Rock, which they did (September 12, full opinion released September 29).

[SRG2]

It would be interesting to poll the current justices to find out if any of them think Cooper v Aaron is no longer good precedent.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Why don't you just say what you mean? Which justices do you think disagree with this holding?

[SRG2]

I think it is possible that many of the justices who granted Trump presidents immunity, who voted to overturn Roe, who weakened the Voting Rights Act or approved its weakening, would also weaken if not remove the precedent. But I do not know hence it would be good to have real-world confirmation rather than speculate.

Do you think Cooper is still good precedent?

[Dan Schiavetta]

Justices who readily jettisoned Roe would almost as readily jettison Brown.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

The pushback might be to its broadest expression of judicial power.

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-law-journal/in-print/volume-107/volume-107-issue-5-may-2019/cooper-v-aaron/