Miller v. California, 418 U.S. 915 (decided July 25, 1974): Appeal from California state court obscenity conviction (actually the state appellate court’s affirmance) dismissed because no federal question, apparently because the proper standard under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments had already been decided by the Court in 413 U.S. 15 (1973), which had vacated the first affirmance and sent it back to the state appellate court, which again affirmed the conviction. This was essentially a redo of the 5 - 4 1973 decision, with Brennan, Stewart and Marshall again arguing that the state obscenity statute was unconstitutionally overbroad, and Douglas (with the ghost of Hugo Black chiming in) again arguing that any obscenity statute violates the First Amendment.
Wasmuth v. Allen, 85 S.Ct. 5 (decided July 25, 1964): Harlan refuses to stay enforcement of a New York statute requiring chiropractors to pass exams in various medical topics before licensure; chiropractors were bent out of joint (sorry) by this allegedly arbitrary exercise of legislative power (14 N.Y.2d 391), but Harlan did not believe a public health measure should be stayed except in “demanding circumstances” and did not think there was a federal issue anyway warranting granting certiorari. No further history; either certiorari was denied, or the chiropractors gave up, or the subluxations were “adjusted” with state authorities.
Field v. United States, 1951 WL 44182 (decided July 25, 1951): (why was this not reported either in United States Reports or West’s Supreme Court Reporter?) Three applicants, including the writer Dashiell Hammett, were trustees of a bail fund and subpoenaed when four men convicted of Communist affiliation jumped bail. The three refused to hand over records, were convicted of contempt, were themselves denied bail, and applied to Stanley Reed as Circuit Justice pending appeal. He affirms the denial of bail because their refusal was undeniably “contemptuous” and their conviction would be affirmed by the Court. Apparently no cert petition was filed. Hammett’s tuberculosis worsened in prison, then when free in 1953 he refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee and was blacklisted, his health declined and he died in 1961.
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