Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (decided April 14, 1873): Fourteenth Amendment (states can’t abridge “privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”) doesn’t prevent states from abridging state rights, only federal rights (which the Court refuses to give examples of) (upholding state’s police power to centralize butcher operations for public safety reasons) (in lecturing on this case my Con Law professor, who like many law professors was unaware of how he came off, kept spitting out the phrase “the BUTCH-ers of New OR-leans!” like they were mass murderers; as the son of a butcher I resent how people use the verb “butcher” to describe shoddy or violent mishandling)
Butler v. Whiteman, 356 U.S. 271 (decided April 14, 1958): jury in Jones Act case should have been allowed to decide whether decedent killed while cleaning tug boiler at wharf was in aid of navigation, was a seaman and whether defendant’s negligence was a factor (overruled by McDermontt Int’l v. Wilander, 1991, to the extent that non-seamen can sue under the Jones Act) (sometime after 1991 I defended a Jones Act case where plaintiff was injured when his truck tipped over while loading pallets onto a ship)
Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. Federal Trade Comm’n, 598 U.S. 175 (decided April 14, 2023): challenges to Constitutionality of FTC and SEC ALJ’s can be brought in federal district court (instead of the usual process of agency determination and then appealing to Court of Appeals) (claim was that ALJ’s were not accountable to President mixing of prosecutorial and adjudicatory powers; if this question gets litigated to a determination the implications are vast)
United States v. Adams, 281 U.S. 202 (decided April 14, 1930): double jeopardy to prosecute making false entry in bank book where already acquitted as to making false entry as to same transaction in another book
Miller v. McLaughlin, 281 U.S. 261 (decided April 14, 1930): Nebraska can regulate fishing on its side of the Missouri River; does not interfere with interstate commerce with Iowa
Walling v. Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Co., 331 U.S. 17 (decided April 14, 1947): Fair Labor Standards Act not violated by arrangement where employees (servicers of oil wells) sometimes have to work more than 84 hours a week to get overtime due to wildly varying hours worked weekly (often less than 20, but also often more than 100 hours/week!) (this decision provoked Congress into amending the overtime statute, 29 U.S.C. §207)
Crane v. Comm’r of Internal Revenue, 331 U.S. 1 (decided April 14, 1947): homeowner’s taxable gain or loss as to property is measured by its fair market value at the time of acquisition without subtracting for mortgage
United States v. Resler, 313 U.S. 57 (decided April 14, 1941): local ordinance requiring license for storing coal did not violate Dormant Commerce Clause even though coal destined for interstate sale; no “continuity of transit”
Wisconsin v. Illinois, 281 U.S. 179 (decided April 14, 1930): orders Illinois to quit stalling and stop diverting Lake Michigan water from Wisconsin as previously ordered (“If its Constitution stands in the way of prompt action it must amend it or yield to an authority that is paramount to the State”)
Kentucky v. Indiana, 281 U.S. 163 (decided April 14, 1930): fact that state (Indiana) is being sued by its own citizens in dispute over contract with another state (Kentucky) to build bridge (over Ohio River) is no defense to original jurisdiction suit (by Kentucky) for breach of contract
Matters v. Ryan, 249 U.S. 375 (decided April 14, 1919): Two women (one English and one American) claimed to be the mother of the same baby, who was brought in from Canada by the American woman. Instead of threatening to cut the baby in two, the Court holds that any federal question presented by the allegation that immigration laws were violated by a minor being brought into the United States by a non-parent is “frivolous”. (unknown what happened after this)
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