Today in Supreme Court History: August 14

American Trucking Ass’ns v. Gray, 483 U.S. 1306 (decided August 14, 1987): Blackmun upholds injunction creating escrow for extra taxes paid by truckers who were challenging a new highway equalization tax on Dormant Commerce Clause grounds; Arkansas insisted on collecting taxes anyway, so escrow would keep the extra funds out of the state’s pocket (I remember those stickers saying, “This truck pays $20,000 a year in highway taxes” . . . I wonder if anyone wrote under that “and causes $50,000 a year in wear and tear”) (the truckers ultimately won, sub nom. American Trucking Ass’ns v. Smith, 496 U.S. 167, 1990)

McDaniel v. Sanchez, 448 U.S. 1318 (decided August 14, 1980): Powell stays order requiring county officials to proceed with “preclearance” procedure (the now-illusory §5 of the Voting Rights Act) for new apportionment plan; says Court must decide whether the plan, already approved by the District Court, is “legislative” (requiring preclearance) or “judicial” (not) (the Court ultimately held that the District Court should not have ruled on the plan; it should have been submitted directly to the Attorney General, 452 U.S. 130, 1981)

Stickel v. United States, 76 S.Ct. 1067 (decided August 14, 1956): Harlan denies continuance of bail pending cert approval because cert petition argues a point which appeared only in dicta in the lower court’s decision (trial judge erroneously applied preponderance instead of reasonable doubt standard in denying motion to acquit, but conviction affirmed on grounds that denial was proper even under reasonable doubt standard)