Today in Supreme Court History: August 8

Public Service Board of State of Vermont v. United States, 87 S.Ct. 3 (decided August 8, 1966): Harlan denies stay of ICC order granting motion by Boston & Maine R.R. to discontinue on economic grounds passenger service from Springfield (Mass.) to White River Junction (Vt.); believes the District Court acted prematurely in initially granting stay because administrative remedies not exhausted, and no irreparable injury in letting order go into effect pending full Court review (B & M went bankrupt in 1970, was revived under new ownership in 1982 and became strictly freight)

Richmond v. Arizona, 434 U.S. 1323 (decided August 8, 1977): Rehnquist denies stay of execution sought pending rehearing of denial of cert; though cert was denied on same day as it was granted in Bell v. Ohio, the cases are different in that Richmond (unlike Bell, who was age 16) did not claim age as a mitigating factor.  (In Bell the Court vacated the death penalty; Richmond’s case was remanded on a separate issue, and the Westlaw history runs to 26 cases, ending in 1994 with the Arizona Supreme Court reducing the sentence to life in prison, which he had largely already served.  Both Bell and Richmond were named “Willie Lee” by their parents.)

Miroyan v. United States, 439 U.S. 1338 (decided August 8, 1978): Rehnquist denies habeas because no Fourth Amendment violation where government agents tracked defendants’ whereabouts via a beeper attached to rented aircraft utilized to import marijuana

Commodity Futures Trading Comm’n v. British American Commodity Options Corp., 434 U.S. 1316 (decided August 8, 1977): Marshall refuses to vacate stay of new regulation requiring commodity options dealers to segregate client money until their options are exercised or expire (we all know Marshall likes desegregation); “exceptional circumstances” for vacating a Circuit Court stay do not exist

Ward v. United States, 76 S.Ct. 1063 (decided August 8, 1956): In conference, Frankfurter alienated his fellow Justices by delivering hour-long lectures to them as if he were still a law professor.  If you want to get a flavor of that, read this windy opinion on the history of bail, in which he implicitly lectures the lower court judges as well.  Imagine being Black or Douglas and being subjected to this for 23 years.  Anyway here he affirms the District Court’s denial of bail in a securities action where confidential reports indicated defendants were likely to flee.