Month: April 2016

In Bank Markazi v. Peterson, 578 U. S. ____ (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court held that Section 8772 of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 does not violate the separation of powers. Congress enacted the statute to ensure that a...

In Arver v. United States, 245 U.S. 366 (1918), the U.S. Supreme Court held that Congress was authorized under the Constitution to compel military service pursuant to the Selective Service Act of 1917. The consolidated cases are also known as the...

In Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1911), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Standard Oil Company was guilty of operating a monopoly in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. While the Court upheld the app...

In Luis v. United States, 136 U.S. 1083 (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the pretrial freeze of a criminal defendant's legitimate, untainted assets violates the Sixth Amendment right to counsel of choice. While the significant constitutiona...

Observing the Nineteenth Amendment: Women’s Right to Vote The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920. It prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of se...

In Evenwel v. Abbott, 578 U. S. ____ (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a state or locality may draw its legislative districts based on total population. The unanimous 8-0 decision is one of the most significant redistricting cases in decades, ...

Examining Evenwel v. Abbott In Evenwel v. Abbott, 578 U. S. ____ (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a state or locality may draw its legislative districts based on total population. The unanimous 8-0 decision is one of the most significant...

The Eighteenth Amendment banned making, transporting, and selling alcoholic beverages throughout the United States. While proponents hoped prohibiting alcohol would significantly reduce crime and other societal ills, the resulting black market foster...

On March 29, 2016, an equally divided U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the lower court ruling in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. The non-precedential per curium decision leaves the constitutionality of public union agency fees to be decided...