Today in Supreme Court History: December 12

Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (decided December 12, 2000): Stopped the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court (though the Court had already stayed it), citing Equal Protection violation; hard to summarize this “don’t ever cite us for this!” decision so I won’t try (Westlaw lists 110 cases giving this case “negative treatment”, courts on all levels except the Supreme Court itself of course). Note: Maybe due to the rushed briefing this wasn’t brought out, but this decision seemed to me to overrule Taylor v. Beckham, 178 U.S. 548 (1900) (federal court can’t review state supreme court resolution of election dispute), which shut federal court doors to Lyndon Johnson’s opponent in the 1948 Senate race and to Richard Nixon in 1960 (Nixon, a well-read lawyer, didn’t even try because he knew it was pointless).

Mitchell v. New York, L.E. & W.R. Co., 146 U.S. 513 (decided December 12, 1892): trial court correctly directed verdict for defendant railroad where teenager who had sneaked onto top of coal car with his friends fell to his death due to “sudden jerk” of train

Shaw v. United States, 580 U.S. 63 (decided December 12, 2016): 18 U.S.C. §1344 (bank fraud) applies to defrauding a depositor as well as a bank