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May 17, 2022 | SCOTUS Wraps Up Oral Arguments for the Term
Month: July 2015
Lethal Injection Cocktail Approved in Glossip v. Gross
On June 29, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, by a vote of 5-4, that Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The case, Glossip v. Gross, was one of the most signi...
Chisholm v. Georgia: State Sovereign Immunity Prior to the 11th Amendment
Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. 419 (1793) is one of the first important decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case, however, is not widely known or studied in constitutional law classes because its main holding, which abrogated state sover...
The Affordable Care Act Tax Credit Subsidies Are Constitutional
In King v. Burwell, a divided Court ruled that all tax subsidies granted under the healthcare law are legal. Had the Court ruled otherwise, the sweeping healthcare reform law may have been in jeopardy. The Facts of the Case The latest ACA ...
Hayburn’s Case: The Issue of Justiciability
Hayburn’s Case, 2 U.S. 409 (1792) is one of the earliest decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the Judiciary Act of 1789 authorized the creation of the Court, the justices did not consider their first case until 1792. Hayburn's case pre...
Texas Can Refuse the Confederate Flag License Plate: Walker v. Texas
In Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that Texas’ specialty license plate designs constitute government speech. Accordingly, Texas was entitled to refuse to issue a confederate flag license pla...
The Fourteenth Amendment and the Slaughterhouse Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court first reviewed the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (1873). In a 5-4 decision, the majority adopted a narrow construction of the Amendment’s Privileges and Immuniti...
Same-Sex Marriage Affirmed in Obergefell v. Hodges
By a vote of 5-4 in Obergefell v. Hodges, the United States Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when...
The Dred Scott Decision: Slavery and the U.S. Supreme Court
In March of 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise - a federal statute that regulated slavery in several western territories of the country - in the infamous Dred Scott Decision, 60 U.S. 393 (1857). ...
Separation of Powers Decides Jerusalem Passport Dispute
In Zivotofsky v. Kerry, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the power to recognize foreign states and governments is exclusive to the President. The 6-3 decision, which rested almost exclusively on the Constitution’s separation of powers, highlights t...
Previous Articles
SCOTUS Wraps Up Oral Arguments for the Term
by DONALD SCARINCI on May 17, 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court has concluded its oral arguments for the October 2021 Term. The justices hea...
SCOTUS Rules Censure of Elected Board Member Didn’t Violate First Amendment
by DONALD SCARINCI on May 10, 2022
In Houston Community College System v. Wilson, 595 U.S. ____ (2022), the U.S. Supreme Court held th...
Supreme Court Breach Is Not the First Involving Roe v. Wade
by DONALD SCARINCI on
The recent disclosure of Justice Samuel Alito’s decision purporting to overturn Roe v. Wade is ar...
