Today in Supreme Court History: May 10

Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (decided May 10, 1886): Fourteenth Amendment violated by ordinance allowing denial without recourse of permits to laundries in wooden buildings; effect was to discriminate against Chinese who though not citizens had equal rights

NBC v. United States, 319 U.S. 190 (decided May 10, 1943): FCC can regulate not only technical and engineering aspects of radio but also content and consider antitrust implications (upholding new regulations allowing FCC to determine if “detrimental to the public interest”) (quite expansive)

Lockerty v. Phillips, 319 U.S. 182 (decided May 10, 1943): upholding Congress’s power to establish the Emergency Court of Appeals with exclusive jurisdiction over wage and price disputes and even as to Constitutionality of related wartime provisions (court was not disbanded until 1962)

United States v. Noveck, 271 U.S. 201 (decided May 10, 1926): whopper told under oath (“I owed $1,484.84 on an income of $16,251.66” when in fact it was $45,664.91 on $124,127.13) barred by three-year perjury statute even though statute for defrauding United States is six years

Georgia v. Tennessee Copper Co., 237 U.S. 474 (decided May 10, 1915): the Justices in this original jurisdiction case reach different findings of fact; 6 - 3 decision places restrictions on copper smelters just past Tennessee line ruining vegetation downwind in Georgia after long dispute about remediation and disagreement about terms (this reminds me of Lou Costello’s failure to understand Sidney Fields’s references to “ore” and “smelting” -- it’s on youtube)

Cumberland Glass Mfg. Co. v. De Witt, 237 U.S. 447 (decided May 10, 1915): business coming out of bankruptcy could still sue creditor for tortious interference with contract where creditor did not raise issue in composition proceeding; 5 - 4 decision

Leiter v. United States, 271 U.S. 204 (decided May 10, 1926): private landlord with 5-year lease to Treasury Department agency can be stiffed for rent after one year if that’s all the original appropriation for the office was for (agency was then folded into another agency)

United States v. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R.R. Co., 237 U.S. 410 (decided May 10, 1915): “transfer trains” (not on any route, but utilized to move cars from one yard to another) are within scope of Safety Appliance Act (penalized for not having operable air brakes on 75% of cars)

Tindal v. Wesley, 167 U.S. 204 (decided May 10, 1897): no Eleventh Amendment impediment to sue state for property held for a private party

Mandeville Island Farms v. American Crystal Sugar Co., 334 U.S. 219 (decided May 10, 1948): local agreement between sugar refiners making them exclusive purchasers of beets (which have to be processed near location of harvesting) violated Sherman Act even though sugar not sold across state lines until after refinement