Today in Supreme Court History: November 21, 1926

11/21/1926: Justice Joseph McKenna died.

Justice Joseph McKenna

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Bank of Marin v. England, 385 U.S. 99 (decided November 21, 1966): bank which had no notice of bankruptcy proceeding not required to turn over to trustee amounts of checks drawn by bankrupt pre-petition but honored post-petition (everything had been squared away with the payee so at issue was only the imposition of costs)

New York, New Haven & Hartford R.R. Co. v. Henagan, 364 U.S. 441 (decided November 21, 1960): Woman stepped in front of train in attempt to commit suicide; train came to sudden stop and waitress in dining car was injured by the jolt (soft tissue injuries plus “paranoid psychosis”). The Court affirms judgment for the railroad. (P.S. Train did not stop in time.)

State of Washington v. Kuykendall, 275 U.S. 207 (decided November 21, 1927): towing of logs across Puget Sound met statutory definition of “common carrier” even if not registered as such and therefore can only charge scheduled rates even though rate for this job was set by contract between it and private party

[JoeFromtheBronx]

On November 21, 1927, in Gong Lum v. Rice, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Chinese American Lum family and upheld Mississippi’s power to force nine-year-old Martha Lum to attend a “colored school” outside the district in which she lived.

As was noted in Brown v. Board of Education, only a limited claim was made:

“in the Gong Lum case, the plaintiff, a child of Chinese descent, contended only that state authorities had misapplied the [separate but equal] doctrine by classifying him with Negro children and requiring him to attend a Negro school.”

June 2, 2024, marked the hundredth anniversary of the California Supreme Court’s opinion in Piper v. Big Pine School District. Fifteeen year old Alice Piper, a Native American, won her case. Her lawyers made a limited argument, granting the principle of separate but equal. They also apparently exaggerated the status of her assimiliation.

The state school district wanted her to go a federal Indian school. The court held this was not an equal remedy. Interesting eight page article:

https://www.cschs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/2024-CSCHS-Review-Fall-Challenging-Segregation.pdf

[Dan Schiavetta]

Cf. Guey Heung Lee v. Johnson, 404 U.S. 1215 (decided August 25, 1971): Douglas denies stay of San Francisco desegregation order as to Chinese-ancestry children; holds that Brown v. Board of Education did not apply just to black children, and believes plan was “thoughtful” though not for him to approve it at this stage (stay was sought by Chinese parents who wanted their children to remain segregated)

[Noscitur a sociis]

McKenna was, I believe, the last Supreme Court justice who had not attended law school at the time of his nomination. (He took a crash course at Columbia before his confirmation hearing.) And I don’t expect we’re going to see another one any time soon.

[F.D. Wolf]

I believe the last justice not to attend law school (or attend any university at all, for that matter), was James Byrnes, appointed to the Court by President Roosevelt in 1941.