Category: Supreme Court Decisions

In Roth v US, 354 U.S. 476 (1957), the U.S. Supreme Court held that obscene speech was not protected under the U.S. Constitution. The decision also established a test to determine whether speech should be considered obscene.   Facts of Roth...

In BNSF Railway v Tyrrell, the Court addressed when courts have jurisdiction over corporate defendants. It held that “the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause does not permit a state to have an out-of-state corporation before its courts wh...

In Advocate Health Care Network v Stapleton, 581 U. S. ____ (2017), the Supreme Court held that church-affiliated hospitals qualify as a “church plan” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The Court’s decision, whi...

In Bristol-Myers Squibb Co v Superior Court of California, San Francisco County, 582 U.S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court tightened the requirements for exercising personal jurisdiction. It held that California courts lacked specific jurisdictio...

In Turner v United States, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant new trials to several defendants convicted of the brutal 1984 murder of Catherine Fuller in Washington, D.C. The defendants had argued that prosecutors withhel...

In Weaver v Massachusetts, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court held that “structural error” requires a showing of prejudice when raised via an ineffective assistance claim. The decision provides clarity regarding the intersection of the...

In California Public Employees’ Retirement System v ANZ Securities, Inc., et al., 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Securities Act of 1933’s (Securities Act) three-year statute of repose is not subject to tolling. Accord...

In Murr v Wisconsin, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Wisconsin Supreme Court's ruling that two contiguous lots should be considered one parcel for the purposes of the government taking a case. In so ruling, the Court establi...

In Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Carol S. Comer, Director, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the State of Missouri violated the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause ...

In Dean v United States, 581 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court held that district courts have the discretion to determine whether a defendant has already been given a mandatory sentence for one crime when considering an appropriate sentence ...