Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

In the context of our understanding of the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the October 2021 term was BIG NEWS. Just to warm up, let's quote this amendment. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.   I'd like to begin by calling your attention to those last two phrases. The people have the right peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government (which includes the judiciary) for a redress of grievances.  After this term was over, there were lots of people who wished to peacefully assemble in the proximity of Justices' residences. Their grievance was their dissatisfaction with the Dobbs case we discussed in the first of these posts. It is safe to say that they want a redress of their grievance in one manner or anot...

I'm continuing my list of most-important-decisions from the US Supreme Court, year by year. Today I'll cover the 80s. Again, each choice is extremely subjective. If you don't care about SCOTUS, you might at least enjoy the photo of Molly Ringwald. Proceeding.... 1980, Pruneyard Shopping v. Robins -- free speech, property rights, state sovereignty, shopping malls 1981, Minnesota v. Clover Leaf Creamery -- bottle bills survive constitutional challenge 1982, Arizona v. Maricopa Cnty Medl Society -- antitrust price fixing, physicians 1983, INS v. Chadha -- separation of powers, legislative veto 1984, Chevron v. NRDC -- deference to administrative discretion 1985, Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises -- "fair use" of copyrighted material 1986, Batson v. Kentucky -- jury composition, racial bias 1987, Edwards v. Aguillard -- creationism and establishment of religion 1988, Morrison v. Olson -- separation of powers & special prosecutors...

The business of owning and leasing out shopping malls ain't what it used to be. I'm old enough to remember when malls themselves were the hot (and worrisome) new trend, popping up in the suburbs and decimating the business activity in the nearest city. Nobody would bother to go downtown to shop anymore, with such an inviting alternative. How unfair! I remember the sometimes heated lawyerly discussions about the first amendment implications of the way that malls had become 'functionally' public property, i.e. town squares. Of course, in the cycle of life one decade's up-and coming phenomenon becomes another decade's old and lagging loser. Shopping malls are still good hang-outs for teenagers, I imagine, but they aren't such vital places for shopping as they used to be. Many of the once-prominent bookstores, record stores, cinemas, and video retailers that once gave people a reason to go have disappeared as people buy books, music, movies, online. Ev...