Category: Supreme Court Decisions

In NFIB v. Sebelius, 567 US __ (2012), the U.S. Supreme Court considered its first constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act. By a vote of 5-4, the Court held that the statute’s “individual mandate” provision was a valid exercise of C...

In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle, 551 U.S. 701 (2007), a divided U.S. Supreme Court held that public school districts can’t use race as the sole determining factor for assigning students to schools, even if they are doing so to a...

Ayotte v Planned Parenthood of Northern New England 546 U.S. 320 (2006), is the parental notification of abortion case that many had hoped would overturn Roe v. Wade. Instead, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to revisit the legality of abortion in A...

In Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Executive Order that banned American citizens of Japanese descent from certain areas in the name of national security. The case was just one of several lawsuits c...

In Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229 (1976), the U.S. Supreme Court established that racially discriminatory laws are only unconstitutional if they have both a discriminatory purpose and a discriminatory impact. As explained by Justice Byron White...

In Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1(1976), the U.S. Supreme Court held that while campaign contribution limits implicate First Amendment interests, they withstand constitutional scrutiny so long as they are closely drawn to serve a sufficiently impor...

In Murray v. Schooner Charming Betsy 6 U.S.64, 2 L.Ed.208 (1804), Chief Justice John Marshall stated that “an act of Congress ought never to be construed to violate the law of nations if any other possible construction remains.” This early Su...

In Talbot v. Seeman, 5 U.S. 1 (1801), the U.S. Supreme Court considered the circumstances under which salvage rights attach to a neutral vessel, captured by enemy forces, and then recaptured by the United States Navy. The Court’s decision, which ...

The Supreme Court’s new term begins on October 5, 2015. One of the first cases the justices will consider is Hurst v. Florida. The case raises several questions about the constitutionality of Florida’s capital punishment scheme, particularly the...

In Barron ex rel. Tiernan v. Mayor of Baltimore, 7 Pet. 243 (1833), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Bill of Rights placed limits on the national government and not on state governments. The Court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John ...