Today in Supreme Court History: January 19, 1990

1/19/1990: Justice Arthur Goldberg dies.

Justice Arthur Goldberg

Comments

[Frank Drackman]

Never got what Marilyn saw in him.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Justice Goldberg resigned after a few years, setting in motion a range of events. The usual "what ifs" can be formulated.

Okay. Dan put today's entry up early. The website is back up and running. As usual, there are some interesting cases.

https://www.captcrisis.com/post/today-in-supreme-court-history-january-19-2

Oyama v. California involves issues that fits the spirit of the holiday. As Dan notes, the majority opinion rests on technical grounds to provide a narrow decision.

Four justices (Black/Douglas, Murphy/Rutledge) concur to more strongly push back against discrimination against Japanese non-citizens. As Murphy noted:

The California Alien Land Law was spawned of the great anti-Oriental virus which, at an early date, infected many persons in that state.

If this blog was around, the usual suspects here would be talking about those "Orientals" and pining for the days of their internment.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Without endorsing all Goldberg's jurisprudence, I don't like the way LBJ tricked him into resigning his Court seat. And I'm shocked that Goldberg, an intelligent man, allowed himself to be persuaded by such nonsense.

"Why be a Supreme Court justice when you could be Ambassador to the United Nations? You could work for world peace!"

John Jay quit the Supreme Court so he could run for Governor of New York. That, I can understand. But UN ambassador? Are you kidding?