Category: US Constitution

The Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Batson v. Kentucky prohibits racial discrimination when selecting a jury. Over 25 years later, lower courts are currently considering whether the same Equal Rights protections should be extended to homosexual...

The Affordable Care Act is likely headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court next term, which starts in October. While the latest round of challenges involve the law’s contraception mandate, the Court’s decision may be influenced by Citizen’s United...

The government cannot force funding recipients to serve as its mouthpiece, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in one of the most significant First Amendment cases of the term. The justices specifically held that requiring nongovernmental organizations wish...

While many of the Supreme Court’s blockbuster cases of the term failed to disappoint, Fisher v. University of Texas may be an exception. When the justices agreed to consider the case, many speculated that the Court would reconsider the preceden...

After years of legal battles, same-sex couples in California are now free to walk down the aisle, albeit on a technicality. In Hollingsworth v. Perry, the U.S. Supreme Court held that supporters of Proposition 8, the state’s voter approved ban on s...

Ten years to the day after it struck down a Texas sodomy law in Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court finally weighed in on the issue of same-sex marriage. In United States v. Windsor, the Court invalidated the federal Defense of Marriage Act (D...

Over forty-five years after Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a deeply divided U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated one of its key provisions. By a vote of 5-4, the Court ruled that Section 4, which establishes states and municipalities th...

While the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to release its most highly anticipated opinions, there has been no shortage of controversy. In Salinas v. Texas, the justices raised the bar for criminal suspects seeking to invoke their constitutional right to r...

While it might seem strange to discuss the patentability of DNA on a constitutional law blog, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. can be traced back to the founding fathers. While they l...

The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to issue groundbreaking opinions over the next few weeks on issues from same-sex marriage to affirmative action. While casual observers will tune in to the evening news to learn about the decisions, those who are “i...