Today in Supreme Court History: April 18, 1775

4/18/1775: Paul Revere's ride.

Comments

[Malika the Maiz]

William Dawes needed a better agent.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Yes, he did more of the riding than Revere. Possibly his silver candlesticks weren't as well known.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

There were a number of other riders as well. If you like such things, The History of the Americans podcast just released a two-parter about the "Revere's Ride," including lots of background.

[Jerry B.]

Revere’s Ride is more alliterative.

[Dan Schiavetta]

The 1976 "Bicentennial" cover of Bell Telephone's phone book (remember those?) had a collage of maybe a hundred people, mostly from American history, talking into various vintage telephones. The back cover had notes identifying them, and the model of the telephone. It had a little joke about Paul Revere, the only pre-invention person depicted -- "he's talking into one of his silver candlesticks".

[Dan Schiavetta]

Block v. Hirsh, 256 U.S. 135 (decided April 18, 1921): statute restricting conditions for eviction was exercise of police power and not a “taking” requiring compensation due to wartime housing shortage as declared by Congress (“a declaration by a legislature concerning public conditions that by necessity and duty it must know, is entitled at least to great respect”)

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Haeger, 581 U.S. 101 (decided April 18, 2017): trial court’s sanctions against party for bad-faith litigation conduct is limited to award of legal costs; lawsuit was not “permeated” by refusal to produce test results re: allegedly defective tire

Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority, 566 U.S. 449 (decided April 18, 2012): only individuals, not nations or organizations, can be held liable under the Torture Victim Prevention Act (dismissing suit against Palestinian Authority, Israel, and the PLO for torture and murder of family members)

New York v. New Jersey, 598 U.S. 218 (decided April 18, 2023): New Jersey can secede (my term!) from compact with New York; compact is a contract and with no terms dealing with termination or withdrawal, usual at-will rule applies (this is the Waterfront Commission Compact, formed in 1951 to deal with corruption, but by now almost all waterfront activity is on the New Jersey side)

Kappos v. Hyatt, 566 U.S. 431 (decided April 18, 2012): Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Federal Rules of Evidence apply to patent suits; federal court can be presented with evidence not presented before Board of Patent Appeals (the applicant, who was trying to patent his “Improved Memory Architecture” software, had forgotten to submit it to the Board -- ha!)

Easley v. Cromartie, 532 U.S. 234 (decided April 18, 2001): issue of fact whether redistricting was due to race (not o.k.) or political gerrymandering (o.k.)

Heintz v. Jenkins, 514 U.S. 291 (decided April 18, 1995): liability under Fair Debt Collection Act extends to collection lawyers, even after they bring suit (here, the infraction seems minor; in notifying defaulting car buyer of amount owed lawyer cited wrong cost of insurance bank had to obtain)

Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc., 514 U.S. 211 (decided April 18, 1995): violation of separation of powers for Congress to require courts to reopen (actually one should just say “open”) final judgments (here, as to securities fraud suits dismissed under prior version of §10(b))

Elfbrandt v. Russell, 384 U.S. 11 (decided April 18, 1966): striking down loyalty oath on Free Association grounds because one can belong to a subversive organization for non-subversive reasons (e.g., membership in Soviet scientific society)

Brookhart v. Janis, 384 U.S. 1 (decided April 18, 1966): right to trial violated when counsel (not the defendant himself) agreed to guilty verdict if “prima facie” case made out by prosecution and no objection to damaging hearsay

[SMP0328]

New Jersey can secede (my term!) from compact with New York

A better term would be "withdraw."

[Dan Schiavetta]

I used the word as a mordant comment on a then-current situation, which I have forgotten.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Would Trump agree with Elfbrandt if the subversion was anti-Trumpism?

[A Japanese Student]

Those of us who are watching the Roberts Court will probably recognize: "wait, didn't this happen very recently, as well?". Today is no exception, at least for me.

One hundred years after Block, for example, many blue states imposed eviction moratoriums. e.g. Heights Apartments, LLC v. Walz (CA8 2022). I think Penn Central changed the legal landscape enough that Block is no longer controlling.

There was also a recent decision on counsels admitting guilt against the defendant's wishes - McCoy v. Louisiana, 584 US --- (2018). The defense attorney thought admitting the client's guilt in front of the jury would somehow reduce the likelihood of death penalty - despite the fact that the client insisted on his innocence. Unsurprisingly, this was held to be a structural error. (Guess who dissented.)

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks.

I comment on McCoy on May 14.

[David Nieporent]

Dan's post suggests that this wasn't exactly a momentous day in Supreme Court history. And yet, any one of those would have been a better choice than Paul Revere's ride, which had as much to do with SCOTUS as it did with the NCAA Final Four.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Should I dedicate my book to Josh? He was the impetus for it. Not sure how I should phrase it though.

[John F. Carr]

For Josh Blackman, whose posts left readers wanting more.

[Dan Schiavetta]

That's a good one. Thanks.

[SRG2]

To Josh Blackman, who fills a much needed gap in legal scholarship

[John 4]

He is the gap.

[Bob from Ohio]

Paul Revere's ride saved Hancock who was president of the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence which led to creation of the United States and creation of SCOTUS.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Longfellow's poem was originally published in The Atlantic Monthly, whose best known regular writer was Oliver Wendell Holmes, who's son Jr. had somewhat of a part to play in SCOTUS.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Sr. prefigured Darwin on evolution and Freud on the unconscious. He was more interesting than his son, who confined himself to the dreary topic of law (though he did write a children's book).

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc. is at least mildly notable.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Certainly if it had gone the other way!

[Syd Henderson]

(dismissing suit against Palestinian Authority, Israel, and the PLO for torture and murder of family members)

All three of them? Caught in the crossfire?

[Dan Schiavetta]

Sorry, I don't know how Israel got in there. Will correct.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007) [and a companion case] was decided on April 18, 2007.

This opinion, by a 5-4 vote, held that the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act did not violate a mother's liberty guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment. Justice Ginsburg had a strong dissent.

The federal law had no health exception. The legislation had a certain rhetorical effect, though alternative methods were no less unpleasant (as would be harm to pregnant persons denied health care). The abortions in the case involved nonviable fetuses.

The accepted medical term for the procedure is dilation & extraction (D&X) or intact dilation and evacuation (intact D&E).

Thomas concurred in part to note that the possibility that the law violated the Commerce Clause was not involved. This did not stop him from opining on such issues in other cases.

Cato and at least one National Review account argued that the law was unconstitutional on federalism grounds. That would not address separate state laws regarding the procedure.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

"pregnant persons"

Do you have the woke mind virus?

Women get pregnant.

[Drewski]

"Only sick people believe that women are people" is not as good of a criticism as you think it is.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Do you have the anti-woke virus?

In addition to acknowledging the difference between gender and sex, using phrases like “pregnant people,” for example, also recognizes intersex people (who have reproductive anatomy or genes that don’t fit into a male-female binary, which is often discovered at birth) and the various ways gender-diverse people affirm their gender identity, Miller said.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/06/health/gender-inclusive-language-wellness/index.html

Not using "pregnant person" doesn't make you some sort of monster or something. For those around here who want to troll about that. OTOH, it has its uses.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Your link also defends the use of the term "penis owners" instead of "men."

So powerful is gender ideology that it has abortion supporters stepping all over one of their key talking points linking pregnancy and women.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Your link also defends the use of the term "penis owners" instead of "men."

It references the term. I can find some other defense that doesn't, if that is what really concerns you. Each word usage is not equally valid in each case, though it allows you to latch on to it.

Your comment doesn't refute the relevancy of "persons." There is a limited number of people who are not women who have abortions. You instead shift, whack-a-mole-like, to something else.

So powerful is gender ideology that it has abortion supporters stepping all over one of their key talking points linking pregnancy and women.

Supporters of the right to choose an abortion as well as the need of some people to have them, including many religions, do note that one reason it is important to have is to protect equal protection and the needs of girls/women overall.

The fact that intersex people, etc., in a few cases, have abortions does not change that women and pregnancy are particularly linked any less than certain things are particularly tied to a religious belief, but they still might be important to others, too.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I'll award you some points about intersex people (more likely to be *targeted* for abortion than to have abortions, is my guess). But the rest is nonsense.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

I'll award you some points for acknowledging the first part before the parenthesis. No points for the rest.

[Dan Schiavetta]

These are complicated, dare I saw transitional? times. I want to fast forward 20 years to see how it all shakes out. Hopefully in the direction of knowledge and understanding.

[Stuart]

Josh, you, and your faithful steed, Prof. Tillman (or is it the other way around), are the Paul Reveres of today. Ride on (into the sunset).

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Longfellow's poem says Paul Revere was the *horse.* Ridin' across the land, kickin' up sand.

That *was* Longfellow, wasn't it?

[IANNAL]

Right. At Lexington, hands went up and people hit the floor.

[Frank Drackman]

I got the horse right here……

[Flight-ER-Doc]

America's creation myth, thanks to Longfellow:

LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

Then he said, “Good night!” and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street,
Wanders and watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry-chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade, —
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town,
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night-encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay, —
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse’s side,
Now gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle-girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry-tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns!

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet:
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.

He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock,
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer’s dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled, —
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farm-yard wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm, —
A cry of defiance and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Thanks. Read it in elementary school (as was common in those days). At the first stanza my friend Kevin said, "'hardly'!"

Still stirs me.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Another legal blog also references the famous ride:

"Hardly a man is now alive/Who remembers that famous day and year."

Yes, today is the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's midnight ride:

One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm.

Unfortunately, Longfellow's poem has now been banned in all K-12 schools and the military academies, because of the reference to Middlesex.

https://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2025/04/on-the-eighteenth-of-april-in-seventy-five.html

Sure, laugh, but remember what happened in Ginzburg v. United States:

The trial court found the obvious, that these hamlets were chosen only for the value their names would have in furthering petitioners' efforts to sell their publications on the basis of salacious appeal; the facilities of the post offices were inadequate to handle the anticipated volume of mail, and the privileges were denied. Mailing privileges were then obtained from the postmaster of Middlesex, New Jersey.

And, he got in trouble for pandering. This is the infamous case where Thurgood Marshall allegedly told his clerks the way to win a case was to send Paul Bender up trying to lose.

[A Japanese Student]

Advisory Opinion on Technical Scope of Utility Model Case (First Petty Bench, decided April 18, 1968): One cannot seek judicial review of Patent Office's advisory opinion on scope of patents since it is not binding

Criminal Regulations to Control Explosives Case (Second Petty Bench, decided April 18, 1975): Fuse not necessary to qualify as an explosive

Bando Mitsugoro VIII Fugu Poisoning Case (Second Petty Bench, April 18, 1980): Licensed fugu chef should have known that fugu liver is toxic; the defendant need not know that it is lethal for negligent homicide conviction (victim was a well-known kabuki actor)

Murder, Firearms and Swords Control Act Case (First Petty Bench, decided April 18, 2005): Shooting co-occupant of a car from the back constitutes discharge of firearms "on a highway"

Aigawa Concrete Case (Third Petty Bench, decided April 18, 2006): Employer can force lockout when a strike forced the concrete company to cancel all orders, jeopardizing its continuity of business

[Dan Schiavetta]

It’s not just the fugu’s liver which has the fatal poison (which acts quickly and for which there is no known antidote). It’s the eyes, ovaries, skin. As Dave Barry put it, “Clearly this is a fish that Mother Nature is telling us we should leave the hell underwater.”

[SRG2]

But the flesh is pretty good - like fluke, IMO.