Today in Supreme Court History: May 19, 1921

5/19/1921: Chief Justice Edward Douglass White dies.

Chief Justice Edward Douglass White

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[Please, Daivd, Seek Help]

The last and only time someone from Louisiana served on the court.

(Which actually made me wonder whether the court, historically or recently, has taken many appeals that addressed the weird civil law stuff from the Louisiana system, and if so, if any non-LA members of the court had experience practicing it.)

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Louisiana v. Levy and a companion case involving illegitimacy interpreted the state's at least somewhat aytpical family law.

The Supreme Court Footnote: A Surprising History by Peter Charles Hoffer has a chapter on Viterbo v. Friedlander.

Justice Gray does a deep dive on (to quote one summary) "whether the unforeseen event that rendered the sugar plantation unfit for its intended purpose entitled the lessee to annul the lease under the Civil Code of Louisiana."

[Speaking for normal people]

Being weird is not a justciable quality.

Wow did you just scream "I know shtall about law"
This highly-respected Lousiana authority on Constitutional Law

James Stoner's first book, Common Law and Liberal Theory: Coke, Hobbes, and the Origins of American Constitutionalism, was hailed as "forceful and wise . . . powerful and convincing" by the American Historical Review and "a stunning achievement" by the Journal of Politics. In that work, which provided historical background to the Founding era, he focused on the common law almost exclusively as a mode of legal thought. He now amplifies and extends his thinking on this subject with a study that transcends such "formalistic" limits and reveals how constitutional law has developed since the Founding.

Common-Law Liberty is a rediscovery and reassertion of the common law's central contributions to and enduring impact on American constitutional law.

Louisiana does not use the British common law tradition. Instead, Louisiana civil law has been derived from the French Napoleonic Code.
Stoner discusses the conflicts over common law principles.

[SMP0328]

From captcrisis

In re Whittington, 391 U.S. 341 (decided May 19, 1968): judge’s determination of juvenile as “delinquent” and therefore committable to institution vacated and remanded to state court for redetermination with Fourteenth Amendment protections (privilege against self-incrimination, etc.)

Petrella v. MGM, 572 U.S. 663 (decided May 19, 2014): widow of co-writer of “Raging Bull” entitled to damages for copyright violation despite passage of 18 years since first alleged violation but entitled to only the past three years’ damages which is the statute of limitations for the statute allowing damages

Leary v. United States, 395 U.S. 6 (decided May 19, 1969): Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 (Timothy Leary was the accused) unconstitutional because it required persons not allowed to possess marijuana to declare it upon entering the country for tax purposes therefore requiring self-incrimination in violation of the Fifth Amendment (Act was repealed in 1970)

Barker Painting Co. v. Local No. 734, 281 U.S. 462 (decided May 19, 1930): Holmes refuses to rule on minimum wage law dispute because case got otherwise disposed of: “Both sides desired that the Court should go farther afield. But a Court does all that its duty compels when it confines itself to the controversy before it. It cannot be required to go into general propositions or prophetic statements of how it is likely to act upon other possible or even probable issues that have not yet arisen.”

Grubb v. Public Utilities Comm’n, 281 U.S. 470 (decided May 19, 1930): wrongful denial of application for proposed interstate bus line can be litigated in state court because federal court does not have exclusive jurisdiction over interstate commerce

Anderson v. Carkins, 135 U.S. 483 (decided May 19, 1890): Homestead Act violated by contract to sell land when seller (who had obtained the land from the government under the Act) lied about it being for his own use as required by Act

Emsheimer v. New Orleans, 186 U.S. 33 (decided May 19, 1902): diversity jurisdiction is determined by residence at the time suit is filed, and is not destroyed by subsequent move (dispute over promissory note)

Fillippon v. Albion Vein Slate Co., 250 U.S. 76 (decided May 19, 1919): reversible error for judge to give instruction to jury without parties and their counsel being present (suit was for workplace injury)

Inyo County v. Paiute-Shoshone Indians of Bishop Community, 538 U.S. 701 (decided May 19, 2003): tribe could not sue under 42 U.S. §1983 because it protected only private persons and not sovereigns (issue was whether tribe had to comply with search warrant for records of employee accused of welfare fraud)

[A Japanese Student]

Petrella is a source of confusion.

If the plaintiff knew (more than three years before filing suit) that there was a copyright infringement, then under Petrella, only three years' worth of damages can be collected.

But if the plaintiff filed suit within three years of discovering infringement (making claim timely under "discovery rule" - adopted by every Circuit, but has zero SCOTUS precedent explicitly stating it), there is no time limit on which damages can be collected. That was the holding in Warner Chappell last term.

SCOTUS should have scrapped discovery rule and instead encouraged litigants to invoke continuing-violation doctrine.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

CJ White was the first Associate Justice to be appointed Chief Justice. Holmes had a good relationship with White even though they served on opposite sides in the Civil War. White served 27 years on the Supreme Court, ten of them as Chief.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

A bit of inside baseball about today's Order List:

https://fixthecourt.com/2025/05/multiple-recusals-finally-in-petition-involving-justices-book-publisher/

[A Japanese Student]

Rare instance of lack of quorum as well. Even rare when it's not a sovereign citizen suing every Federal official the plaintiff can name.