Category: Supreme Court Decisions

The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to consider Trinity Lutheran Church v Pauley, a case involving whether the state of Missouri violated the Constitution when it denied the Trinity Lutheran Church’s application for Missouri’s Scrap Tire Grant...

Murr v Wisconsin is one of the October 2016 Term’s most-anticipated cases. The regulatory takings case will address whether two legally distinct but commonly owned contiguous parcels must be combined for takings analysis purposes. The Court’s dec...

In Weston v City Council of Charleston, 27 U.S. 449 (1829), the Supreme Court held that a city ordinance taxing interest-bearing stock of the United States was unconstitutional. The Court specifically found that the tax burdened the enumerated power ...

The U.S. Supreme Court will return from its summer recess at the end of the month. The justices have already agreed to consider a number of significant criminal law cases over 2016-2017 Term. This post offers a brief preview.   Bravo-Fer...

In Willson v Black Bird Creek Marsh Company, 27 U.S. (2 Pet.) 245 (1829), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a Delaware state law authorizing the building of a dam did not unconstitutionally usurp Congress's powers under the Commerce Clause because the...

In Brown v Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419 (1827), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a Maryland law requiring importers of foreign goods to obtain a license violated the Constitution’s prohibition on import taxes and undermined federal authority over inters...

In Commonwealth v Caetano, 577 U. S. ____ (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a Massachusetts court’s proffered reasons for upholding a ban on personal possession or use of a “stun gun” contradicted the Court’s prior Second Amendment h...

In Ogden v Saunders, 25 U.S. 213 (1827), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a New York bankruptcy law did not violate the Constitution’s Contracts Clause. The case is also most remembered as the only decision from which Chief Justice John Marshall...

In Dietz v Bouldin, 579 U. S. ____ (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the federal district court has a limited inherent power to rescind a jury discharge order and recall a jury in a civil case for further deliberations after identifying an err...

In Wayman v Southard, 23 U.S. 10 Wheat. 1 1 (1825), the U.S. Supreme Court first grappled with the doctrine of non-delegation, under which one branch of government can’t delegate its constitutionally authorized power to another. In the decision, Ch...