Today in Supreme Court History: December 17, 1910

12/17/1910: Justice Joseph Rucker Lamar nominated to the Supreme Court.

Justice Joseph Rucker Lamar

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Illinois Central R.R. Co. v. McKendree, 203 U.S. 514 (decided December 17, 1906): Secretary of Agriculture can’t make a regulation (here, a “quarantine line” from California to Maryland to control cattle infection) that affects interstate commerce without specific Congressional authority; regulation also affected intrastate commerce and being indivisible was void in its entirety

NLRB v. Saviar Mfg. Co., 245 U.S. 359 (decided December 17, 1973): certification of union voided where before certification election the union promised that anyone who voted for certification would have their initiation dues waived

Arlan’s Dept. Store of Louisville v. Kentucky, 371 U.S. 218 (decided December 17, 1962): dismisses First Amendment Establishment Clause objections to state statute prohibiting employing persons on Sunday; in dissent Douglas makes the point (obvious to us nowadays) that Judaism and Islam don’t use Sunday as the sabbath

[apedad]

Was Arlan's ever overturned?

I did a quick Google search but don't see anything.

Obviously stores are open in KY on Sundays.

Or did KY eventually (partially) move out of the Middle Ages and changed their law.

[F.D. Wolf]

No, states can still close stores on Sundays; they simply choose not to do it. I grew up in Texas when practically everything was closed on Sunday. The state changed that in the early 1980s, though vestiges still remain. For example, liquor stores are required to close on Sunday. (Sunday-closure laws are known as "blue laws".)

[Mr. Bumble]

Not just states. I believe several counties in New Jersey had blue laws but most were repealed; however, I think they still exist in Bergen county (in northern NJ).

[Commenter_XY]

That is correct = Bergen County. Paramus seemed to have the bluest of blue laws.

[David Nieporent]

Yes. Also car dealers can't open on Sundays statewide.

[F.D. Wolf]

They must close EITHER Saturday or Sunday, though most seem to choose Sunday to close.

[F.D. Wolf]

Texas Transportation Code

Sec. 728.002. SALE OF MOTOR VEHICLES ON CONSECUTIVE SATURDAY AND SUNDAY PROHIBITED. (a) A person may not, on consecutive days of Saturday and Sunday:

(1) sell or offer for sale a motor vehicle; or

(2) compel an employee to sell or offer for sale a motor vehicle.

[David Nieporent]

Not in NJ. NJ law says "a person who engages in the business of buying, selling, or exchanging motor vehicles or who opens a place of business and attempts to engage in such conduct on a Sunday commits a disorderly persons offense." (Emphasis added.)

[SRG2]

Douglas's dissent is worth reading: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/371/218/

[Dan Schiavetta]

yes

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Full opinion in Arlan's:

"The motion to dismiss is granted, and the appeal is dismissed for want of a substantial federal question."

Unlike Braunfeld v. Brown, the law exempted those whose Sabbath was another day. So, it took into consideration free exercise concerns that some laws did not.

Douglas, however, argued it still had an illicit religious purpose and effect. He also argues the exemption for members of a "religious society" was too narrow. Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security suggests he has a point about that.

[F.D. Wolf]

Justice Joseph Rucker Lamar died 4 years and 364 days into his Supreme Court tenure. He was a cousin of Justice Lucius Q.C. Lamar, who had served on the Court some years earlier and, similarly, died 5 years and 5 days into his tenure.

Shortest Supreme Court tenures terminated by death:

1. Robert Trimble: 2 years, 70 days
2. Howell Edmunds Jackson: 2 years, 157 days
3. Horace Harmon Lurton: 4 years, 204 days
4. Philip Barbour: 4 years, 289 days
5. Joseph Rucker Lamar: 4 years, 364 days
6. L.Q.C. Lamar: 5 years, 5 days

(I did not include Harlan Stone, who died 4 years and 204 days into his tenure as Chief Justice, but had before that served 16 years and 122 days as an Associate Justice.)

[F.D. Wolf]

Correction: Stone's tenure as Chief Justice lasted 4 years, 293 days.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

So you're saying they were all...killed by death?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ4n1IAZ_lg

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Justice Lamar used to spell his name with two rs but then he wanted to distant himself from his nefarious uncle, Hedley Lamarr.

Justice Lamar is not someone much remembered these days. It's interesting to look into such people. Well, interesting to some people. History is filled with the average sorts.

Lamar was replaced by Brandeis. That reminds me of a connection alluded to a silly post by our host. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had a walk-on role on Broadway. She replaced Breyer who replace Blackmun. Who had a cameo (after he retired) as Joseph Story in a film. Unlike the play, I saw that film.

Justice Lamar's tenure is not too memorable. He rarely dissented. One that I found some time back is a bit of a trivia question.

Quong Wing v. Kirkendall was actually argued 12/18/1911. To quote Justice Holmes, who wrote the opinion upholding that law:

The law under which the fee was exacted imposed the payment upon all persons engaged in laundry business other than the steam laundry business, with a proviso that it should not apply to women so engaged where not more than two women were employed.

Justice Lamar had a solo dissent. He is part rested it sex discrimination:

Among these small operators there is a further discrimination, based on sex. It would be just as competent to tax the property of men and exempt that of women. The individual characteristics of the owner do not furnish a basis on which to make a classification for purposes of taxation. It is the property or the business which is to be taxed, regardless of the qualities of the owner. A discrimination founded on the personal attributes of those engaged in the same occupation, and not on the value or the amount of the business, is arbitrary.

The case was cited in various discussions of pre-Reed v. Reed analysis of sex classifications, including Pauli Murray, "A Proposal to Reexamine the Applicability of the Fourteenth Amendment to State Laws and Practices Which Discriminate on the Basis of Sex Per Se." A true footnote in history.