Today in Supreme Court History: June 1

Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (decided June 1, 1925): struck down Oregon statute requiring all children to go to public school as infringing liberty right of parents to decide how to educate their children, and property right of Catholic school plaintiff which would lose business Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (decided June 1, 1931): striking down on First Amendment (Fourteenth) grounds statute allowing state to enjoin newspaper publishing of “malicious, scandalous or defamatory” material (articles at issue named gangsters and law enforcement who were suspiciously not pursuing them) United States v. Cooley, 593 U.S. --- (decided June 1, 2021): tribal officer had power to conduct (otherwise legal) search and detention of non-Native American driver on public highway running through reservation (Breyer’s opinion notes that “most people living on Indian reservations are not Indians” -- I honestly never knew that) Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455 (1942) (decided June 1, 1942): government not required to provide attorney for criminal defendant who can’t afford one; affirming conviction for robbery (overruled by Gideon v. Wainwright) (one assumes Mr. Betts acted as his own lawyer at trial but one Jesse Slingluff is listed as his lawyer before the Court) NAACP v. Alabama, 377 U.S. 288 (decided June 1, 1964): this entertaining opinion blows to bits the b.s. reasons the Alabama Supreme Court upheld an order forbidding the NAACP to do business in Alabama, from rejecting a brief which was in fact punctiliously drafted, to claiming the right to “oust” the organization for not paying a licensing fee when state rules provided merely for issuing a fine Bank of America, N.A. v. Caulkett, 575 U.S. 790 (decided June 1, 2015): Chapter 7 (liquidation) debtor can’t void junior mortgage (11 U.S.C. §506(d)) even when property is already underwater due to senior mortgage

Dunbar v. Dunbar, 190 U.S. 340 (decided June 1, 1903): agreement to pay alimony not in the form of a court order but still not dischargeable in bankruptcy Nasrallah v. Barr, 590 U.S. --- (decided June 1, 2020): court can’t review INS’s determination that noncitizen can be deported but can review his claim (under 1984 international Convention Against Torture) that he would be tortured if he’s sent back (guilty of larceny but might be tortured in Lebanon as member of Druze religion)(remanded to Circuit Court which let him stay, 824 Fed. Appx. 667) Mifflin v. R.H. White Co., 190 U.S. 260 (decided June 1, 1903): author is not protected by copyright in publisher’s name (superseded by Copyright Act of 1909) (at issue were articles published in The Atlantic written by plaintiff’s predecessor in interest, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.; it’s odd that Holmes Jr. didn’t recuse himself) (the articles were called “The Professor at the Breakfast Table” and would have made fascinating reading; Dr. Holmes, who prefigured Darwin on evolution and Freud on the unconscious, was a more interesting person than his son, who confined himself to the dreary topic of law, though he did write a children’s book which I can’t find right now) Ebeling v. Morgan, 237 U.S. 625 (decided June 1, 1915): chronic ripper of mail sacks chargeable separately for each sack (three years prison time per sack x 5 sacks = 15 years) (arguably overruled by Bell v. United States, 1955, which rejected the formula of 2½ years per woman x 2 women = 5 years)