U.S. Supreme Court: Graziadio Business Report Loop

Inside Info from The Graziadio School...

This Session of The LOOP
Will Now Come to Order!
After a 5 to 4 decision, your LoopMaster writes
for the majority that this session of The LOOP
will take a bi-partisan look at the gum stuck
under the nation's highest bench.

Ipso facto, we will explore the benchmark thinking that has kept the U.S. Constitution vibrant for 216 years.

I'm having one of those days when everything seems unconstitutional.

You may now approach the bench.
Absolutists and Originalists, please face backward.

"Equal Justice Under Law"
These words above the main entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court Building express the ultimate responsibility of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court is the highest tribunal in the nation for all cases and controversies arising under the Constitution or the laws of the United States. The Court is charged with ensuring all Americans equal justice under law, and functions as guardian and interpreter of the Constitution. (usscplus.com)

No Jokes...
It is important we revere these fine, fine Justices. No humor is allowed about the Supreme Court. (Acceptable Humor Archive)

...Except, Maybe, Subtle Ones
In his "Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy," Robert Anton Wilson replaces dirty words with the names of United States Congresspersons and Supreme Court Justices. (Bookworm)

Great Moments in Jurisprudence
1919 - Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes writes that yelling fire in a crowded theater is not protected by the 1st Amendment.

First Amendment, contd.
"The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship." Justice John Paul Stevens

Chiseled on Stone Tablets?
Originalism, as it is called, assumes that a fixed set of meanings was locked into the Constitution at the moment of its adoption, and that these meanings enjoy a supreme legal authority that should guide and constrain the course of interpretation. (Stanford Today)

Supreme Court Almanac
(Infoplease.com)
Number of Supreme Court cases filed each year: 6500+
First Chief Justice: John Jay
Youngest justice appointed: Joseph Story (age 32)
Oldest justice appointed: Horace Lurton (age 65)
Oldest justice to serve: Oliver Wendell Holmes (retired at age 90)
Shortest term: John Rutledge (1 year associate justice; 4 mo. chief justice)
Longest term: William O. Douglas (36 years, 209 days)
First Catholic justice: Roger B. Taney
First Jewish justice: Louis Brandeis
First African-American justice: Thurgood Marshall
First woman justice: Sandra Day O'Connor
Presidents to appoint current justices: Nixon (Rehnquist); Ford (Stevens); Reagan (O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy); G. H. W. Bush (Souter, Thomas);
Clinton (Ginsburg, Breyer)

Timothy Cummings

8 Year-old Accidentally Exercises
Second Amendment Rights

NORFOLK, VA - Gun owners are applauding the patriotic exercise of Second Amendment rights by 8-year-old Timothy Cummings. The incident occurred after Cummings returned from school and found his parents absent from the house. Cummings placed a pair of phone books on a stool to retrieve his father's loaded .38-caliber revolver from a closet shelf. After a preliminary backyard investigation of his constitutional rights claimed the life of Pepper, the family's cocker spaniel, Cummings fell on the weapon, causing it to discharge into his left thigh. The boy is in serious but stable condition. "The framers of the Constitution would be so proud of what my boy did yesterday," said Cummings' father Randall who originally purchased the handgun for home defense. (The ONION)

I'll Second that Amendment!
"I don't care about crime, I just want to get the guns." Senator Howard Metzenbaum

Keep Yer Distance
"The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom." Justice William O. Douglas

Say It Again Brother!
"The right to be left alone - the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized men." Justice Louis Brandeis

And Sister!
"I just want to be alone." Greta Garbo

FDR was accused of packing the Supreme Court in 1937.

Top 10 Supreme Court
Practical Jokes
10. Leave the seat up for Justices O'Connor and Ginsberg.
9. Taping an "Impeach Me" sign to the back of Clarence Thomas' robe
is as funny now as it's ever been.
8. Rehnquist sneaking Baywatch references into his dissenting opinions.
7. Changed national anthem to "Gangsta's Paradise" and re-worded Pledge of Allegiance
to say, "One nation under Coolio."
6. Telling death row inmates they've overturned their conviction and then yelling, "PSYCHE! Turn on the juice!"
5. Telling Court TV that the Supreme Court will rule on the existence of Santa Claus.
4. Sending 55 pizzas to the White House when the President is hosting a State Dinner.
3. Replace U.S. law books with Singapore law books and watch the wackiness ensue.
2. Spend a couple of days on your deathbed, just to get the President's hopes up.

And the Number 1 Supreme Court Practical Joke...Load everybody into Souter's Taurus and drive by Bork's house blasting Aerosmith and honking the horn.

Hardening of the Gum
It is much easier to modify an opinion if one has not already persuasively declared it. Associate Justice David Souter

Punchline
"The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." Oliver Wendell Holmes

Equality Benchmarks
1776 - Declaration of Independence, "...all men are created equal."
1786 - Constitution says blacks equal to 3/5 of whites for taxation and representation.
1857 - Dred Scott, African Americans are not U.S. citizens.
1866 - Civil Rights Act grants citizenship to all U.S.-born except Native Americans.
1868 - 14th Amendment grants equal protection of the laws to African Americans.
1870 - 15th Amendment establishes the right of African American males to vote.
1875 - Civil Rights Act grants equal access to public accommodations.
1883 - Supreme Court nullifies Civil Rights Act.
1896 - Plessy v. Ferguson, Separate but equal treatment of African Americans.
1920 - 19th Amendment provides women the right to vote.
1924 - Native Americans granted citizenship and the right to vote
1954 - Brown v. Board of Education. African Americans not separate.
1965 - Congress prohibits restrictions such as Alabama's literacy test.
1967 - Thurgood Marshall becomes first African American Supreme Court Justice.
1996 - Romer v. Evans, Colorado citizens may not discriminate based on sexual orientation.

Getting to the Heart of Things
�At the heart of liberty is the right to define one�s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.� Justice Anthony Kennedy

Book LOOP...


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Bob Fulmer suggests... Building Leaders: How Successful Companies Develop the Next Generation Jay Alden Conger & Beth Benjamin	Your Loopmaster suggests... Against the Imperial Judiciary: The Supreme Court vs. the Sovereignty of the People Matthew J. Franck	Your Loopmaster suggests... Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest Sandra Day O'Connor & H. Alan Day

Loop du Jour...

(What's in the News?)

Nadir...

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Golden Scales of Justice are encircled with "The Supreme Court of the United States." Whether you play the game or are a collector, this set of three Wilson golf balls is a must have item.
Price: $11.95

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