- Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479
Defendants, a director of medical clinic and a doctor, challenged a decision from the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, which convicted them of violating a state law that prohibited the dispensing or use of …
- Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113
Plaintiffs, a pregnant single woman and a married couple, and intervenor physician sued defendant district attorney challenging the constitutionality of Texas abortion laws, and sought an injunction. The United …
- Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490
Appellees, public health care officials and nonprofit corporations that performed abortions, filed a class action against appellant State of Missouri, which challenged the constitutionality of a Missouri statute …
- Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833
Petitioners, abortion clinics and physician, brought suit against respondents, the governor and others, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from five provisions of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of …
- Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914
In an action brought by plaintiff physician challenging the constitutionality of Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-328 (Supp. 1999), which criminalizes performance of "partial birth abortions," the Court granted certiorari to …
- Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124
Petitioner, the United States Attorney General, sought certiorari review of judgments from the United States Courts of Appeals for the Eighth and Ninth Circuits affirming district court rulings in favor of …
- Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238
The Court found that the key question was whether the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty under the laws applicable to the prisoners constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth …
- Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153
Upon certiorari review, the Supreme Court held that the punishment of death did not invariably violate the United States Constitution.
- Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262
The court granted certiorari to decide whether petitioner was correct in his assertion that the imposition of the death penalty violated his rights under the Eigth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court concluded that …
- Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242
Defendant sought certiorari review of a decision of the Supreme Court of Florida, which affirmed defendant's sentence of death imposed following his conviction for murder.
- Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325
The Court granted certiorari to consider the constitutionality of defendent's death sentence under Louisiana law which the defendant claimed violated the Eigth and Fourteenth Amendments.
- Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280
On a grant of certiorari to the Supreme Court of North Carolina, the Court considered petitioner inmates' arguments that the Government's imposition of the death sentence on them for first degree murder violated …
- Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551
Respondent juvenile committed murder at the age of 17. He was tried and sentenced to death. He filed a petition for state postconviction relief, arguing that the reasoning forbidding the execution of mentally …
- Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186
The Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not confer any fundamental right on homosexuals to engage in acts of consensual sodomy, even if the conduct occurred in the privacy of their …
- Hurley v. Irish American Gay Group of Boston, 515 U.S. 557
Appeal of judgment on writ of certiorari from Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which affirmed lower court's ruling that concluded that the denial of respondent gay organization's application to march in a …
- Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620
Petitioners, the State of Colorado and State officials, appealed a decision from the Supreme Court of Colorado, which affirmed the district court's judgment that enjoined enforcement of an amendment to the Colorado …
- Boy Scouts of America et al. v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640
On writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of New Jersey, petitioners organization appealed judgment that application of state public accommodations law did not violate their First Amendment freedom of association. …
- Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558
On writ of certiorari, petitioners appealed a decision of the Court of Appeals of Texas, Fourteenth District, upholding state law that made it a crime for two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate …
- Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393
Certiorari was granted from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Missouri finding that respondent was not liable to petitioner for assault. The trial court held that petitioner was a slave and, …
- Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537
The Court rejected petitioner's argument that the separation of the two races stamped one race with a badge of inferiority. The Court affirmed that a Lousiana statute that implied merely a legal distinction between …
- Korematsu v. US, 323 U.S. 214
Petitioner, an American citizen of Japanese descent, was convicted in the United States district court for remaining in a designated military area contrary to an order which directed that after May 9, 1942, all …
- Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. US, 379 U.S. 241
Appellant motel, which discriminated in the renting of its rooms on the basis of race, sought review by certiorari of a judgment from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by …
- Katzenbach v. McClung, 379 U.S. 294
An injunction restraining appellant from enforcing Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against appellee came before the court on direct appeal. Appellee served food procured via interstate commerce and served …
- Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1
The Court found that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violated the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause and deprived appellants of liberty without due process of …
- City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507
The court held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 was unconstitutional because it allowed considerable Congressional intrusion into the states' general authority to regulate for the health and …
- Ricci v. DeStefano, 129 S. Ct. 2658
Petitioners, white and Hispanic firefighters, brought actions against respondent city alleging that the city's refusal to certify promotion examination results based on disparate racial impact of the examination …
- Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1
The Court held that the First Amendment did not prohibit New Jersey from spending tax-raised funds to pay the bus fares of parochial school pupils as a part of a general program under which it paid the fares of …
- Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421
Petitioner parents applied for a writ of certiorari after the Court of Appeals of New York granted a judgment that upheld the school board's authority to use prayer in the public schools on the condition that no …
- Abington School District v. Schempp (and Murray v. Curlett), 374 U.S. 203
The Court concluded that state laws requiring readings from the Bible at the beginning of the school day amounted to requiring religious exercises and such exercises were being conducted in direct violation of the …
- Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602
In a consolidated case from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and from the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, appellant citizens and taxpayers …
- Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205
The parents practiced the Amish and Mennonite religions and argued that sending their children to public school after the eighth grade violated their religious beliefs and threatened their religious way of life. The …
- Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577
The Court held that accommodating the Amish and Mennonite parents' religious objections to compulsory education after the eigth grade would not impair the physical or mental health of the child, result in an …
- Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520
Petitioners, church and its president, applied for and received licensing, inspection and zoning approvals to establish a church including a ritual of animal sacrifice from respondent city. In response, an emergency …
- Rosenberger v. University of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819
Petitioner students brought an action against respondents alleging First Amendment violations for respondents' refusal to authorize payment of the printing costs of petitioners student publication based on its …
- Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203
This action arose from a case in which U.S. Supreme Court held that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment barred a city from sending public school teachers into parochial schools to provide education to …
- Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47
Defendants were convicted of conspiracy and other crimes under the Espionage Act for distributing leaflets that opposed the military draft. Defendants appealed their convictions on the basis that the Espionage Act …
- Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568
Appellant was convicted under a New Hampshire statute for using offensive language towards another person in public. Appellant contended that the statute was invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment because it placed …
- Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476
Petitioners, New York and California mail-order businessmen, were convicted under federal and state statutes, of mailing obscene materials. Petitioners appealed on grounds that the federal statute violated the First …
- New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254
The Court held that petitioner newspaper's constitutional guarantees to freedom of speech and of the press by the First and Fourteenth Amendments required a rule that prohibited a public official from recovering …
- Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444
Petitioner was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan and was convicted under Ohio's criminal syndicalism statute, which made it unlawful to advocate crime or methods of terrorism or to voluntarily assembly with any group to …
- Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503
Petitioner high school students challenged the constitutionality of respondent school officials' suspension of petitioners for wearing black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War.
- Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15
Appellee argued that the four-letter expletive imprinted on appellant's jacket, which he wore in the municipal courthouse as an expression of his feelings toward the Vietnam War and the draft, was "offensive …
- New York Times v. United States, 403 U.S. 713
In an action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the United States government sought an injunction against the publication by the New York Times of the contents of a classified …
- Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15
Defendant was convicted of distributing obscene matter. The Court held that the standard to determine whether material was obscene was whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, not …
- Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260
The petitioner, a high school principal removed articles from the school newspaper. The Court found that public schools did not possess all of the attributes of traditional public forums. The school had an interest …
- Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46
Petitioner magazine sought review of the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, affirming an award of monetary damages to respondent, a nationally known minister, for intentional …
- Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397
Petitioner State requested a writ of certiorari to examine a decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, which reversed the trial court's decision that convicted respondent of desecrating a flag after he …
- Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., 501 U.S. 560
The case was before the court on a writ of certiorari to United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which had concluded that nude dancing performed for entertainment was expression protected by the …
- Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844
After Congress passed the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA), appellees sought a declaratory judgment deeming it an unconstitutional violation of the First and Fifth Amendments. The Court found that the CDA …
- Erie v. Pap's A. M., 529 U.S. 277
On writ of certiorari to Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Western District, petitioner city appealed judgment determining that petitioner's ordinance banning public nudity unconstitutionally burdened the expressive …
- Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137
The applicant and two others contended that the late President of the United States had nominated them to the Senate and that the Senate had advised and consented to their appointments as justices of the peace. At a …
- Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 14 U.S. 304
On writ of error, the Supreme Court held that the appellate power of the United States does extend to cases pending in the state courts.
- McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316
Defendant appealed a judgment of the Court of Appeals of the State of Maryland finding for plaintiff, who brought suit against defendant to recover certain penalties under a Maryland act imposing a tax on all banks …
- Ableman v. Booth, 62 U.S. 506
The Court concluded that the state supreme court lacked the power to inquire into the custody of the federal prisoner even if it concluded that the such custody was unconstitutional. The Supremacy Clause was clothed …
- Missouri v. Holland, 252 U.S. 416
The State brought a bill in equity, which challenged the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of July 3, 1918 claiming that the treaty was an unconstitutional interference with appellant's sovereign rights under the Tenth …
- Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1
Petitioners, the Little Rock School Board and School Superintendent (school authorities), asked a district court to postpone their program for desegregation mandated by the Brown v. Board of Education decision …
- United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683
Cross-petitions were granted for immediate review of the denial of a motion to quash a third-party subpoena duces tecum issued by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia directing the President …
- South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203
The Court affirmed held that: (1) the indirect imposition of a minimum drinking age through the reduction of federal highway funds otherwise allocable to a state if the state had a minimum drinking age below 21 was …
- U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779
Petitioners challenged a decision of the Arkansas Supreme Court that affirmed a ruling of the trial court that declared unconstitutional an Arkansas Constitutional Amendment which limited the amount of terms that …
- United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549
Respondent was convicted of violating the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 after carrying a concealed handgun and bullets to school. Respondent's conviction was reversed on appeal. In upholding the reversal, the …
- Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681
Respondent, a private citizen, sought to recover damages from petitioner, the President of the U.S., based on actions that allegedly took place before his term began. Petitioner argued that in all but the most …
- Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898
The Brady Act amended a detailed federal scheme that governed distribution of firearms established by the Gun Control Act of 1968. Interim provisions directed state law enforcement officers to participate in …
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