Missouri chief justice details top legal cases of century

Missouri legal cases during the last century have helped de-fine the U.S. Constitution, as well as occasionally provide entertainment for the masses.

According to Missouri's chief justice, Stephen N. Limbaugh, who spoke at the Dec. 19 Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association meeting, one Mis-souri case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court had a "young whippersnapper called Thur-good Marshall" argue it.

The case, which is commonly found in legal textbooks as an interpretation of the 14th Amendment equal protection clause, Shelley v. Kraemer, ori-ginated in St. Louis. The U.S. high court ruled that the states can't enforce racially restrictive covenants on real estate.

Limbaugh discussed some of the other greatest and most fa-mous cases of the century which he and his father, Stephen N. Limbaugh, a senior federal judge, have written about in a pamphlet.

One famous trial was over the murder of Col. Thomas Swope, a wealthy Kansas City real estate investor (Swope Park is named after the family) who was alleg-edly murdered by his son-in-law, Bennett Clark Hyde. The case, which went from 1910 to 1917, made for sensational reading in the Kansas City Star, which was sued for libel and slander.

Hyde, a medical doctor, treated Swope, who died the next day. When some other family members treated by Hyde died, autopsies were performed which revealed traces of strychnine. Three trials ended in mistrials and a state law at the time forbade a fourth trial.

Another significant Missouri case which went to the U.S. Supreme Court, Limbaugh said, was the forerunner to the landmark education access case, Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan. The Brown decision threw out the ancient, racially discriminatory practice of providing "separate but equal" education facilities for non-white citizens.

But the case that loosened up the thinking of the court before Brown was decided State of Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada was from Missouri. Gaines sued the dean of admissions of the University of Missouri-Columbia's Law School because Gaines, a black man, was refused admission, although he was qualified.

The U.S. Supreme Court said a Mis-souri law, which provided payment for tuition for Gaines to go out of state to law school, didn't provide equal education because Gaines had to travel out-of state for law school and he shouldn't have to do that. Sadly, Limbaugh said, Gaines mysteriously disappeared during the pendency of the case, which he won.

The right to die was considered by the U.S. justices in Cruzan v. Director, Mis-souri Department of Health in 1990. Nancy Cruzan was in a persistent vegetative state after a car wreck but didn't have a formal health care directive that would have allowed her to die. The U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to state court to use a "clear and convincing" standard of evidence to determine if Cruzan would have chosen death if she had been competent to do so.

Justice Anthony Scalia wrote for the Supreme Court, "The point at which life becomes worthless and the point at which the means to preserve it become extraordinary or inappropriate is neither set forth in the Constitution nor known to the nine justices of this court any better than they are known to nine people picked at random in the Kansas City telephone book," according to Limbaugh.

Another Missouri case, Associated Industries of Missouri v. Lohman, in-volved the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In that case, decided in 1994, the Supreme Court held that the state-imposed "use" tax on out-of-state products violated the Commerce Clause.

Other Missouri cases of note that went to the U.S. Supreme Court are:

State of Missouri v. State of Illinois, a 1901 case in which the Supreme Court decided it has jurisdiction over all controversies between states.

Duren v. Missouri, decided in 1979, determined women were no longer automatically excluded from jury duty.

McDonnell Douglas v. Green in 1973 established the elements for proving an initial case for employment discrimination.

Widmar v. Vincent in 1981 resulted in a ruling that schools had to open facilities to religious groups if they were open to nonreligious groups for outside activities.

Missouri v. Jenkins in 1990 and 1995 cases desegregated the Kansas City School District.

Some famous trials of the century as determined by input from other lawyers, judges and law school professors, were:

State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (the "Scopes Monkey Trial")

State of California v. O.J. Simpson

State of New Jersey v. Bruno Richard Hauptmann (the Lindbergh baby kidnapping)

United States v. Julius and Ethel Ro-senberg

United States v. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

State of California v. Charles Man-son, et al.

State of Ohio v. Samuel Sheppard

United States v. Alger Hiss

United States v. Abbott Hoffman et al.

United States v. Timothy McVeigh