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- Marshall: address the issue of the Supreme Court looking at cases heard in state courts. Decision: Virginia started suit, Cohens only appealing their convictions, upheld convictions. The constitution made the national government supreme and within it the judicial branch was the one that acted as a final interpreter.
- Congress authorized lottery for DC, Cohens family sold tickets in Virginia in violation of that state's law
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Federalism Case: Kennedy: ruled that the states could not be sued in their own courts by state employees for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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| Unanimous: Thomas: interpret the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program as allowing a state to group into a single assistance unit all needy children who lived in the same household under the care of one relative. Federal Law gives each state great latitude in dispersing funds under program. California: Grandmother cared for granddaughter and two grandnieces, but by calling that one unit the benefits were reduced |
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| Reapportionment case: took the one-man, one-vote rule and applied it to county and city governments as well as states, due to the equal protection clause of the 14th Am. |
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| Babbitt v Sweet Home Chapter of Communities for a Greater Oregon |
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| Stevens: upheld regulations issued under the '73 Endangered Species Act, prohibited modifying any habitat when it would impair an endangered species' ability to breed, feed,or find shelter, even on private land. Loggers and the spotted owl, congress' clear expression of "harm" in the law |
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| Barenblatt v United States |
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| Harlan: upheld the contempt conviction of Barenblatt for refusing to answer questions pertaining to communism in education. He felt that the question of communist activities fell within the government's interests in investigating this area outweighed the witness' interest in not answering the questions. Victory of House Committee on Un-American Activities. |
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| Kennedy: Bar examination in the Virgin Islands, threw out the regulation as a violation of the privileges and immunities clause of Art IV, Sec 2 of const. Felt the regulation had no substantial objective. The fact that the Islands are geographically isolated is not enough, because lawyers who were not physically present could retain local lawyers to handle mattes for them. |
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| Federalism: O'Connor: felt that the firearms law can only be nullified if the convict's civil rights have been restored under federal law. Beecham's firearms conviction was upheld, NC restored his civil rights, federal law makes it a crime for people convict of a serious offense to own firearms. |
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| Board of Estimate of City of New York v Morris |
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| White: invalidated the city's method to elect the board. election fell under the equal protection clause of the 14th Am. in that it was a bonafide local election, it was covered by court's holdings on reapportionment. Said that there has to be alternatives that would minimize discrimination in voting power. This case:78% deviation against the law city-wide members, not electing from single member districts based upon population, method unconstitutional. |
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| Board of Trustees of University of Alabama v Garrett |
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| Rehnquist: congress exceeded it authority when it let state workers file employment-discrimination lawsuits against their employers under the 1990 American with Disabilities Act because of the 11th Am. gives states immunity against being sued in federal courts. Nurse who been at university for 17 years had breast cancer and took four month leave to undergo treatment, when she returned she was ordered to take a lower paying job or quit. |
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| Warren: held that Bond could not be excluded because he broke no law. All he did was say he admired those people who had the courage to oppose the draft, in no way was that counseling, aiding, or abetting those people. Legislators must be given the widest latitude to express their views on policy matters. Bond was a black man excluded from grounds when elected to lower house in Georgia because he opposed the vietnam war. |
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| Kennedy: held that the detainees at Guantanamo Bay have constitutional right to go to federal court under a habeas corpus petition to challenge their continued detention as enemy combatants. Declared unconstitutional a provision of the 2006 Military Commissions Act that stripped the federal courts of jurisdiction to hear these petitions, and stressed that the consititution allows the writ to be suspended only in times of invasion and insurrection. |
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| Burger: power of the Comptroller-General to be an intrusion into the executive function, because the CG, even though appointed by President w/ Senate Approval, cannot be removed by the President. He can only be removed by a joint resolution of congress or by impeachment, yet he is the one executing it, Congress is executing the law, which is a function of executive branch, not congress. Congress passed '85 Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, set spending goals, and if sums exceeded them, the CG institutes cuts. |
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| Brentwood Academy v Tennesse Secondary School Athletic Association |
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| Souter: held that the state athletic assc. can be sued for allegedly violating a member's rights if the assc. is so closely connected with public school officials that it acts for the state. Fed. civil rights law provides remedies only for gov violations of people's rights, in this case public schools represented 84% of assc.'s membership. Brentwood violated assc. rules in recruiting hs players |
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| Briscoe v Bank of Kentucky |
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| McLean: upheld a Kentucky law by which a bank owned by the state was allowed to issue notes which circulated as currency. Since second bank of the US was no longer in existence, no notes circulating, the only paper money was state bank notes. Calling them unconstitutional would've created a crisis in the monetary system. Court made distinction between state and its bank, bank was issuing notes and not states, not unconstitutional |
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White: upheld Hawaii prohibition of write-in voting because the state provided reasonable routes to the ballots for those who are not state official candidates of established parties. Hawaii allows candidates to enter nonpartisan primary by filing petitions containing 15 or 25 signatures, which court considered only a limited burden.
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| Blackmun: upheld tennesse law, prohibited the solicitation of votes and the display of campaign material within 100ft of a polling place, there was a compelling interest by the state in preventing voter intimidation and election fraud. |
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| White: the policy of not allowing unfit tea into the country was set forth by Congress in the statute, and the tea inspectors were only implementing that policy, therefore the delegation of power was not major enough to warrant court intervention. Congress allowed a Board of Tea Inspectors in the executive branch to do the grading of the Tea. |
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| Kennedy: upheld federal conviction that gave three time violent felon an enhanced sentence, as long as state, in restoring his civil rights, had put a limitation on weapons, then the uniform federal ban against all weapons is activated. This person convicted three times in MA, restored civil right w/ prohibition of rifles, and restricts handguns in that they cannot be carried out of house/business. |
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| Central Virginia Community College v Katz |
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| Federalism Case: Stevens: held that states are not immune from private lawsuits brought under federal bankruptcy law. Individual states had been committed to a federal solution to bankruptcy problems. Case: Concerned bankruptcy of company operating bookstores on VA state colleges and universities campuses, settled debts it owed to state colleges |
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| Chamber of Commerce of United States v Brown |
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| Stevens: holding that federal labor laws preempted a California law that limited many employers that received state grants, contacts, or reimbursements could not use the money to assist, promote or deter union organizing, although it did permit activities favoring unions. The fed. law supported wide-open debate about labor issues as long as the employer did not try to coerce employees into accepting its point of view |
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| Cherokee Nation v Georgia |
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| Marshall: held that the indian tribes could not sue in federal courts (not states nor foreign nations) but did say that they were under the jurisdiction of the US ans could only give up their lands voluntarily. Georgia was imposing its law against the Indian Tribes in their states, seizing indian lands. |
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| Chicago v Environmental Defense Fund |
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| Scalia: ruled against city of Chicago saying that Congress had not created an exemption for the ash. Meaning of the law rather than the history or the EPA view of the law. Chicago was charged with breaking thw law by using landfills not licensed to accept hazardous wastes as disposal sites for the ash left after the incinerator. |
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| Clinton v City of New York |
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| Stevens: found '96 Line-Item Veto act, which allowed the president to cancel individual items of fed. spending and tax breaks, to be unconstitutional as a violation of the Presentment Clause of the Constitution... describes what the president can do when a bill comes forth from congress. Said that the two instances, the presidents actions have amended acts of Congress by repealing a portion of each, the line-item veto can only be done by amending const. |
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| Stevens: held there was no immunity afforded to president from civil damages litigation arising out of events that occured before taking office, either in the Constit. or in public policy. Immunity is for official acts, not for unofficial conduct. An allegation of sexual harassment |
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| Hughes: held the question of the validity of the prodecure of Kansas rejecting and accepting the Child Labor Amendment, to be a political question to be decided by the other branches of government, congress must determine the validity>leading to congress set time limits |
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Sutherland: ruled unconstitutional the higher taxing of income received from money loaned outside the state than within the state as unconstitutional because it violated the equal protection clause of 14th am. and the privileges and immunities clause. the right to conduct business across state lines was a privilege of US citizenship which no state can abridge.
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| College Savings Bank v Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board |
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| Scalia: states, including their universities and agencies, are also immune from trademark suits, struck down fed laws authorizing suits against states for these type violations. The bank charged Florida w/ false advertising of the state's program, in violation of fed. trademark law, leading to unfair competition due to state's activities in the marketplace. |
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| court ruled that travelers do not surrender their right to privacy when their luggage is in an overhead bin on a bus when a federal agent detected meth by squeezing the bag. Rehnquist: ruled it to be an unreasonable search |
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| Presidential election would be decided by the candidate who carried Florida, but recounts of disputed votes were going on in several counties. Decision ordered that recounts stopped, which gave the election to Bush who was ahead at that moment. Ruled that recounts violate the equal protection clause as all voters in the state were not being threated the same. per curiam decision |
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| Chamber of Commerce of United States v Whiting |
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| Looked at whether Arizona's tough immigration law is valid. upheld legal Arizona Worker's Act which gave penalties to any corporation that hired illegal aliens |
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