The first justice Harlan

California Law Review

Volumn 96, Issue 5, 2008, Pages 1383-1393

  Liu, Goodwin ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 56049118006     PISSN: 00081221     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (66)

1. 127 S. Ct. 2738 (2007).
2. See Goodwin Liu, "History Will Be Heard": An Appraisal of the Seattle/Louisville Decision, 2 HARVARD L. & POL'Y REV. 53 (2008); Goodwin Liu, Seattle and Louisville, 95 CALIF. L. REV. 277 (2007).
3. Brown v. Bd. of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (1954); see Parents Involved, 127 S. Ct. at 2767 (plurality opinion) (describing the violation in Brown as "'differential treatment... on the basis of race'" that harmed black and white children equally). But see Parents Involved, 127 S. Ct. at 2798 (Stevens, J., dissenting) ("The Chief Justice fails to note that it was only black schoolchildren who were so ordered; indeed, the history books do not tell stories of white children struggling to attend black schools.").
4. Parents Involved, 127 S. Ct. at 2836 (Breyer, J., dissenting).
5. See id. at 2788-97 (Kennedy, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment).
6. 163 U.S. 537, 552 (1896) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
7. See Parents Involved, 127 S. Ct. at 2758 n.14 (plurality opinion); id. at 2782, 2783, 2787, 2788 (Thomas, J., concurring); id. at 2791-92 (Kennedy, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment); id. at 2799 n.6 (Stevens, J., dissenting).
8. Plessy, 163 U.S. at 559 (Harlan, J., dissenting); see Parents Involved, 127 S. Ct. at 2782, 2787, 2788 (Thomas, J., concurring) (quoting Harlan). Justice Thomas invokes the same language in Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306, 378 (2003) (Thomas, J., dissenting).
9. Parents Involved, 127 S. Ct. at 2782-83 (Thomas, J., concurring) (quoting IN MEMORIAM: HONORABLE THURGOOD MARSHALL, PROCEEDINGS OF THE BAR AND OFFICERS OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, X (1993) (remarks of Judge Motley)) (internal quotation marks omitted).
10. 109 U.S. 3, 26 (1883) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
11. 211 U.S. 45, 58 (1908) (Harian, J., dissenting).
12. 198 U.S. 45, 65 (1905) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
13. 157 U.S. 429, 652 (1895) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
14. 156 U.S. 1, 18 (1895) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
15. Dorr v. United States, 195 U.S. 138, 154 (1904) (Harlan, J., dissenting); Hawaii v. Mankichi, 190 U.S. 197, 226 (1903) (Harlan, J., dissenting); Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244, 375 (1901) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
16. 110 U.S. 516, 538 (1884) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
17. See Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78, 129-33 (1970) (Harlan, J., concurring in the result); Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 172-76 (1968) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
18. Eric Schepard, The Great Dissenter's Greatest Dissents: The First Justice Harlan, the "Color-Blind" Constitution and the Meaning of His Dissents in the Insular Cases for the War on Terror, 48 AM. J. LEGAL HIST. 119, 119 (2006).
19. See, e.g., New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262, 280 (1932) (Brandeis, J., dissenting); Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 471 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting); Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652, 672 (1925) (Holmes, J., dissenting); Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45, 74 (1905) (Holmes, J., dissenting).
20. 175 U.S. 528 (1899).
21. 106 U.S. 583, 585 (1883) (finding no discrimination because the punishment for interracial adultery applies equally "to both offenders, the white and the black").
22. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 561 (1896) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
23. Chae Chan Ping v. United States, 130 U.S. 581 (1889).
24. 149 U.S. 698 (1893).
25. 169 U.S. 649, 705 (1898) (Fuller, C.J., dissenting, joined by Harlan, J.).
26. My account of Harlan's upbringing and political career is drawn from several illuminating biographies, especially LOREN P. BETH, JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN: THE LAST WHIG JUSTICE 7-129 (1992); LINDA P RZYBYSZEWSKI, THE REPUBLIC ACCORDING TO JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN 14-43 (1999); TINSLEY E. YARBROUGH, JUDICIAL ENIGMA: THE FIRST JUSTICE HARLAN 3-114 (1995); and Alan F. Westin, John Marshall Harlan and the Constitutional Rights of Negroes: The Trunsformution of a Southerner, 66 YALE L.J. 637, 638-70 (1957).
27. See BETH, supra note 26, at 1, 12-13 (discussing the political career of James Harlan and the Harlan family's commitment to Whig nationalism); YARBROUGH, supra note 26, at 3-10 (same).
28. PRZYBYSZEWSKI, supra note 26, at 23 (quoting diary of John Harlan's wife, Malvina). On slaveholding in the Harlan family, see id. at 20-27.
29. See id. at 26.
30. For biographical information on Robert Harlan and his relationship to John Harlan, sec BETH, supra note 26, at 12-13, and YARBROUGH, supra note 26, at 10-20.
31. See id.
32. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 560 (1896) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
33. See BETH, supra note 26, at 17-18; Westin, supra note 26, at 639.
34. See YARBROUOH, supra note 26, at 29-31; Westin, supra note 26, at 640-41.
35. Westin, supra note 26, at 643.
36. See YARBROUGH, supra note 26, at 46-55.
37. Westin, supra note 26, at 646-47.
38. Westin, supra note 26, at 651 (quoting a speech delivered by Harlan at New Albany, Indiana, on October 4, 1864).
39. See YARBROUGH, supra note 26, at 60-61.
40. See Westin, supra note 26, at 652-53.
41. See id. at 653-54.
42. See id. at 659; see generally CHARLES LANE, THE DAY FREEDOM DIED: THE COLFAX MASSACRE, THE SUPREME COURT, AND THE BETRAYAL OF RECONSTRUCTION (2008).
43. On Harlan's conversion to Republicanism, see BETH, supra note 26, at 81-97, and YARBROUGH, supra note 26, at 65-X5.
44. Westin, supra note 26, at 659.
45. Id. at 659-60 (quoting a speech delivered by Harlan at Livermore, Kentucky, on July 26, 1871).
46. Id. at 662 (internal quotation marks omitted).
47. On Harlan's nomination and confirmation to the Supreme Court, see BETH, supra note 26, at 119-29, and YARBROUCH, supra note 26, at 102-14.
48. See BETH, supra note 26, at 121; YARBROUGH, supra note 26, at 109-10.
49. The Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3, 24 (1883).
50. See id. at 10-19.
51. See id. at 28-30 (Harlan, J., dissenting) (discussing Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 41 U.S. 539 (1842) (upholding Fugitive Slave Act of 1793), and Ableman v. Booth, 62 U.S. 506 (1858) (upholding Fugitive Slave Act of 1850)).
52. Id. at 34.
53. Id. at 46.
54. Id. (quoting U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 1).
55. Id.
56. See U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 1 (referring to the "privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States").
57. Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. at 48 (Harlan, J., dissenting).
58. United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649, 731 (1898) (Fuller, C.J., joined by Harlan, J.) (quoting Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 698, 717 (1893)) (internal quotation marks omitted).
59. See PRZYBYSZEWSKI, supra note 26, at 81-117.
60. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 554 (1896) (Harlan, J., dissenting).
61. Id. at 559.
62. Id. at 560.
63. See PRZVBYSZEWSKI, supra note 26, at 117.
64. See Westin, supra note 26, at 699.
65. See PRZYBYSZEWSKI, supra note 26, at 8.
66. Cf. Reva B. Siegel, Equality Talk: Antisubordination and Anticlassification Values in Constitutional Struggles over Brown, 117 HARV. L. REV. 1470 (2004).